Yuan Heping-Yuan Heping, who was nicknamed "Big Eye" from the beginning
3 years ago, has now been honored as "Eight Lords".
Yuan Heping used to dress up as the "King of the Scarlet" in the Hong Kong film "King Kong", which imitated the American film "King Kong". Now he has become the hottest action guide in the world with the American film "Hacker" trilogy. The contrast between the past and the present, like a dream, seems incredible, but in fact it is the positive result of "big-eyed eight lords" with years of hard work and super strength.
(1) First try: Funny Kung Fu Film
Yuan Heping was born in a martial arts family, and his father Yuan Xiaotian was a ugly Peking Opera, and he was good at northern martial arts. As early as 1939, Yuan Xiaotian began to be a martial arts and stuntman in Hong Kong films, and he was highly respected in this field. Yuan Xiaotian has seven children, and Yuan Heping is the second child. Since childhood, he has been practicing martial arts with his father together with other brothers Yuan Xiangren, Yuan Xinyi, Yuan Richu, Yuan Zhenwei and Yuan Longju. At the age of 2, he entered the film circle as a dragon and tiger martial artist and a walk-on actor. At the age of 25, he first worked as an action designer for "Crazy Killer" directed by Wu Siyuan, in 197.
In the 197s, Kung Fu movies were all the rage in Hong Kong. Every year, Kung Fu movies were produced and released, which accounted for more than half of Hong Kong movies. It was the golden age of Kung Fu movies! Because the fighting routine of the old-school Huang Feihong Kung Fu film (starring Kwan Tak-hing) that once led the trend has fallen behind, the action design of Kung Fu films at that time mostly followed the trend of Bruce Lee's modern boxing, Zhang Che's and Liu Jialiang's Shaolin Kung Fu in the late Qing Dynasty, and Chu Yuan's and Chia Tang's costume martial arts fighting. The result of imitating the trend is naturally shoddy and monotonous, and the audience is getting more and more boring. In addition, Xu Guanwen Brothers' life comedies were very popular, which had an impact on Kung Fu films. By the end of 197s, Hong Kong's Kung Fu film creation was inevitably in trouble-at this time, Yuan Heping began to become famous, and his innovation and improvement on Kung Fu films made far-reaching breakthrough achievements.
In p>1978, with the help of the famous filmmaker Wu Siyuan, Yuan Heping, who had worked as an action designer for many films, was finally promoted to be a director, and started shooting two kung fu films, Snake-shaped Diao Hands and Drunk Boxing, within one year. Although these two films are ordinary plots in which recalcitrant teenagers learn from hidden masters and eventually defeat powerful enemies, they are made new by Yuan Heping. He first set the tone for Kung Fu comedies "Snake-shaped Diao Hands" and "Drunken Boxing", and at the same time carefully designed pictographic martial arts movements that are lively, dexterous and juggling, highlighting the fun of the practice process, which is completely different from the previous Kung Fu film mode and makes the audience feel refreshed.
The Snake-like Clever Hand and Drunken Boxing received excellent response after their release. Both Kung Fu comedies ranked among the top ten box office movies of that year and even entered the Japanese market. Yuan Heping also made a blockbuster, becoming the third successful example of Hong Kong film industry after Liu Jialiang and Sammo Hung who was promoted from action director to director. In addition, Yuan Heping's two films also won the popularity of Jackie Chan, who used to be a box office poison. The image of a stubborn teenager full of joy and vitality in the films is simply tailor-made for Jackie Chan, and Jackie Chan, who has been trained in a drama school for ten years, is naturally familiar with the difficult acrobatic movements designed by Yuan Heping during his practice. With such seamless cooperation, it is difficult to succeed.
After Drunk Boxing, Yuan Heping and Jackie Chan parted ways, and the two pioneers of Hong Kong humorous kung fu films continued to carry forward this kind of films along their respective favorite directions. If Jackie Chan's "Funny Fist" and "Little Brother Comes Out" are free to break through the routine, then Yuan Heping's "Lin Shirong" and "Brave Without Fear" are the fusion of tradition and innovation, which can also be said to be the continuation of "Drunken Boxing". Drunken Boxing was originally a traditional Huang Feihong theme, but the director cleverly changed the serious and orthodox middle-aged legend of Master Huang into a naughty and humorous story of young man Huang Feihong. Until "Lin Shirong" and "The Brave Are Fearless", these two films with the same theme of "Huang Feihong", although they were changed back to Kwan Tak-hing, the authentic "Master Huang", were already comic in seriousness. Besides, Master Huang no longer appears as the main character, but takes the experience of Huang Feihong's young disciples as the plot line, and it is still the routine of Drunken Boxing with humorous stories of young people in trouble and fierce scenes at the end. Specific to the action, the two films are both hard and soft, but Lin Shirong was designed by Yuan Heping and Sammo Hung. The Brave Are Fearless is a collective creation of Yuan Jiaban, but the hero is still Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan's younger brother Yuan Biao.
Yuan Heping's position as a director of kung fu films is certainly more stable, because Lin Shirong and The Brave Don't Fear are not lost to Drunken Boxing at the box office.
(2) Several storms: Fantasy Kung Fu movies and fashion action movies
When it comes to the contact and application of movie stunts, Yuan Heping, who is good at shooting real kung fu, didn't start from The Matrix as many people think. As a matter of fact, Yuan Heping began to combine fist-and-fist kung fu with movie stunts 2 years ago, and created a unique type of Hong Kong film-"Linghuan Kung Fu Film". However, in those days, Grandpa Eight did not play computer stunts, but local stunts including smoke, prestige, magic and acrobatics.
Perhaps inspired by Sammo Hung's 198 film Ghost, Yuan Heping also directed daoist magic in 1982, and went further and made it more mysterious. "Ghosts and Ghosts" still has some real-life plots of cheating and catching rape. At the end, the main event, the fight of ghosts' possession, is still represented by fists and fists. Until Yuan Heping's "daoist magic", it is completely surreal plot logic and fantastic skill. Yi Rong's murder, revenge in hell, calling for rain and paper-cutting become a butterfly are clearly a magical legend. It can be seen that Yuan Heping devoted great efforts to the film. He drew inspiration from the traditional folk culture in China, not only designed extraordinary acrobatic body movements, but also used a lot of traditional magic techniques, which made the characters, props, scenery and fighting scenes in daoist magic present a strange style that is both scary and humorous, even in today's Hong Kong movies.
After the release of daoist magic, it was a great success, which encouraged Yuan Heping and Yuan Jiaban, and then they made some fantastic kung fu films, such as Heavenly Master meets evil spirits, Zombies are afraid, Yinyang Raiders and so on, and continued to make great efforts in the design of all kinds of strange and magical action bridges. It's a pity that these films only take advantage of the rhythm wonders, but the plot content is simple and rough, far less than Sammo Hung's "Scary Man" and "Mr. Zombie" and other fantasy kung fu films. Both Ching-Ying Lam and Billy Chan kept a check on the action, and Huang Bingyao, Ying Huang and other famous screenwriters carefully arranged the plot, so they eventually became formalistic works, with little response and getting worse at the box office.
seeing that the scenery of the "fantasy kung fu film" is no longer good, and the "Laughing Tai Chi" which returned to the kung fu comedy in the early Republic of China is not satisfactory, Yuan Heping decided to keep up with the trend of the times and make a fashion action film instead, and his first work was "Meet My Opponent" in 1985. In this well-received film, Yuan Heping combines popular break dancing with traditional martial arts and acrobatics to create a brand-new action entertainment effect. In addition, it is worth noting that at this stage, Donnie Yen, a disciple excavated by Yuan Heping, became the best interpreter of his fashion action films. From "Encounter in Love" to "Special Police Slaughter Dragons", "The Royal Elder Martial Sister Directly Attacks Witnesses" and then to "Money Laundering", Donnie Yen assisted Yuan Heping in designing many wonderful and novel modern styles, which were quite different from the previous kung fu comedies of Eight Lords.
Especially the action film Money Laundering by police and bandits, the story is simple and boring, but the fighting scenes designed by Yuan Heping, Donnie Yen, Yuan Xiangren and Philip Kwok (all of them have now entered the international film world) completely break the routine mode of traditional kung fu movies, and combine modern boxing and decomposed martial arts moves, which are quick and agile, with natural and unrestrained movements and sharp shapes, and Donnie Yen is good at leg skills.
However, despite Yuan Heping's persistent innovation in fashion action fighting, it is still difficult to reproduce the glory of kung fu comedy. In the late 198s, Jackie Chan's fashion action movies were the most popular with the audience. At that time, he and Cheng Jiaban had won four Hong Kong Awards for Best Action Direction. In contrast, Yuan Heping's action design is not bad, but the overall quality of participating in the film is mediocre, which wastes the talent of Eight Lords. In fact, whether acting as an action director or a director, Yuan Heping at that time lacked a collaborator who could improve the film level from form to content in all directions ...
(3) Brilliant again: The trend of martial arts films in the 199s
When Hong Kong entered the 199s, a new upsurge of martial arts films was set off, and Yuan Heping could take this opportunity to show its strengths. However, the reason why Grandpa Eight can reach the second peak of his personal career also benefits from finding a creative partner, who is also the initiator of the new martial arts film craze-Tsui Hark.
But in 1991, Tsui Hark, who was famous for his innovation and change, prepared to remake the story of Huang Feihong. In the first episode, Liu Jiarong, Yuan Xiangren and Yuan Xinyi were invited to design action moves for the film. Huang Feihong with new wine in old bottles was a great success after its release, earning 3 million yuan at the box office. Tsui Hark won the Hong Kong Academy Award for Best Director and Yuan Xiangren won the Best Action Direction Award. The following year, Tsui Hark took the opportunity to launch the sequel "Men Be Self-reliant", and this time only Yuan Heping was invited as the action director. Eight lords did not bear the great trust. In addition to continuing the first martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial arts martial As for the best part of the film, the stick fight between Huang Feihong and Nalan Yuanshu (Donnie Yen) in a narrow space was actually designed by Yuan Heping, which was amazing. Therefore, Yuan Heping's award for Best Action Guidance at that year's Hong Kong Academy Awards was absolutely deserved!
The years of p>1993 and 1994 were the heyday of Yuan Heping's creation. He worked hard as the action director and director of seven kung fu films, including Huang Feihong's Iron Chicken Fighting the Centipede, Young Huang Feihong's Iron Horse, tai chi zhang sanfeng, Hero Su Qier, Wing Chun, Jingwu Hero and Legend of Fire Cloud. And when working with Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Yang Ziqiong and other kung fu stars, Eight Masters is different from person to person every time, tailored according to each person's characteristics. For example, if Donnie Yen's leg skills are good, we should pay attention to giving full play to this advantage; Yang Ziqiong is a dancer, so we should arrange rhythmic and flexible movements for her. Jet Li's martial arts skills are profound, and his moves are well-organized. Therefore, Yuan Heping designed more chic and heroic movements for him. Furthermore, it will change with the drama. For example, in Jet Li's Iron Chicken Fighting the Centipede, tai chi zhang sanfeng and Jingwu Hero, Eight Masters arranged three different styles of kung fu tricks for Jet Li, namely drunken boxing, Tai Ji Chuan and free fighting. Compared with Jackie Chan's acrobatic humorous drunken fist, Jet Li used a hard drunken fist from fist to flesh in Iron Chicken vs Centipede. -From this, it is not difficult to see Yuan Heping's spirit of innovation and change in action design.
among the many kung fu films that Yuan Heping has made, he thinks that his most satisfying work is The Iron Horse of Young Huang Feihong. The film is written and supervised by Tsui Hark, and it is also the theme of "Huang Feihong" which is the specialty of Eight Masters. Although it tells the story of Huang Feihong's youth, it is written in thick ink about the affection of Huang Qiying's father and son, which is very rare in the works directed by Yuan Heping. As for the action scenes, Yuan Heping returned to the traditional kung fu films, shooting more coherent real actions without stopping, which was particularly violent and exciting. The "shadowless leg" kicked by hanging wire in "A Man Should Strive for Self-improvement" is also reproduced by Donnie Yen's fast leg in "The Iron Horse". In addition, the Nanpai Hongquan, which Master Huang is really good at in history, has also become the main application move against the enemy in this film, instead of using the Northern Kung Fu indiscriminately like Jet Li's "Huang Feihong" series. In addition, even at the end of the film, the life-and-death duel on a stake that was almost burnt out was hard to be perfectly presented if Donnie Yen, Yu Rongguang and Ren Shiguan didn't have real martial arts skills.
As for the standard of "Iron Horse", perhaps it can be indicated by a modest remark of Donnie Yen: this is a film that establishes the basic standard of Hong Kong action kung fu movies, and anything beyond it is definitely a good film. The implication is, naturally, that "The Iron Horse" is also a masterpiece. As a matter of fact, when The Iron Horse was released that year, it was a big hit, and the box office only received more than 6 million Hong Kong dollars, which greatly disappointed Yuan Heping and Donnie Yen. However, it is only a matter of time before gold will shine. At the end of 21, "Iron Horse" landed in the United States, and the western audience responded enthusiastically to the film's pure China traditional kung fu, which was an ideal box office. -For Yuan Heping, this late affirmation is certainly gratifying, but it is only icing on the cake, because at this time he has become the most famous international action guide because of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix.
(4) World-renowned: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix
In the mid-199s, blindly following the trend and copying finally pushed Hong Kong's martial arts films into a corner again. Yuan Heping's film career has also fallen into a trough, and his films, Tiger, Tiger, Dragon, Kung Fu Boy and Street Killer, all suffered box office fiasco. Yuan Heping clearly realized that it was difficult to make kung fu movies in Hong Kong, so he moved to the mainland in time, and co-organized with Zhang Xinyan to shoot Kung Fu martial arts TV series such as Master Tai Chi, New Shaolin Temple and Xiao Li Flying Knife. Among them, the CCTV drama "Water Margin", in which Eight Lords acted as the action director, had the most extensive influence. His movements abandoned fancy moves and were good at being real and smooth, sweeping away the old-fashioned and clumsy fighting style of such dramas in the mainland, which was well received by the audience.
Although Eighth Master Yuan was reduced to making TV series at that time, his works are still alive and powerful, and he has a large number of action Fans in the West alone. For example, the Wozhuoski brothers who filmed "Flowers in the World" are hardcore fans of Yuan Heping movies. For this reason, when the Wozhuo brothers filmed The Matrix in 1998, they naturally thought of hiring Yuan Heping as the action design of the film. Yuan Heping was very interested in their action concept of "Oriental Kung Fu+Western Special Effects", and just took this opportunity to enter Hollywood and immediately agreed to join.
As an action director, what Yuan Heping needs to do is to perfectly embody the action ideas of the directors, the Wozhuo brothers. He first trained Keanu Reeves and other stars in physical fitness and basic skills, and at the same time learned the skills of hanging wire. Two months later, the actors began to try to complete the movements designed by Grandpa Eight, such as Carrie Ann Moss's "Eagle Spread its Wings" in the air and Keanu Weiss's "Iron Banqiao" in bullet time, all of which were full of difficulties. Fortunately, the actors all completed them wonderfully. In addition, because any action kung fu can appear in the virtual world, Yuan Heping has also added the famous signs of Bruce Lee and Huang Feihong, which are most familiar to China audiences, and his famous work "Drunken Boxing", which is quite interesting.
After The Matrix was released in p>1999, it caused a sensation all over the world, with good box office reputation. However, before Yuan Heping could enjoy the joy of success, he plunged into the martial arts film directed by Ang Lee.