Time Editorial Department | Hidden Drink
Heal life with movies.
Today is Xingchi Zhou’s 60th birthday. I wish Xingye a happy birthday!
Born in the slums, "walk-on" entered the industry, from "I am an actor" to retreating into the background to become a director.
From Xingzai to Xingye, more than 30 years of film, and more than 50 films starring or directing, Stephen Chow has brought many classic works to fans, as well as countless touching and laughing.
Regarding the screen image of Lord Xing, it has been reviewed too many times.
Today, Time Lord wants to change his perspective and tell 15 short stories about him.
Perhaps there is something in it that you don’t know.
01
"Fa Xiao" Leung Chaowei
Stephen Chow and Tony Leung, the two superstars of Hong Kong’s film industry, are actually "young children".
Their birthdays were only five days apart, and they first met because Tony Leung’s classmate was dating Stephen Chow’s sister, and they both went to work as light bulbs.
In 1982, they went to the Hong Kong TVB artiste training class together. As a result, Tony Leung, who accompanied him, was selected, but Stephen Chow fell into the sun. Thanks to Qi Meizhen’s support, he was admitted to the night class.
As a classmate, Wu Zhenyu once said that the teacher most often praised Tony Leung in class.
But every time they stood in line, Stephen Chow and Tony Leung refused to stand in the first row because the person in front was the shortest.
Unexpectedly, they achieved the highest level of success later.
02
Watch the fight
If the essence of comedy is tragedy, then Stephen Chow, who is the best at comedy, has long realized this truth.
In his childhood, his parents often quarreled and even fought over some trivial matters.
Childhood Stephen Chow with his mother and sisters
The other children stayed far away, but Zhou Xingchi was the opposite. He regarded the noise of his parents as a funny little theater.
Every time his parents quarreled, he watched with relish.
When his parents divorced at the age of 7, he became more and more taciturn, and began to like to lie on the window and watch the people coming and going in the streets downstairs, observing the neighborhoods and the city.
He could even lie on the window for a day without speaking.
Loneliness and bystanders have since become the base color of Zhou Xingchi’s life.
03
walk-on
When the students in the artist training class had started filming one after another, Stephen Chow was still working as a children’s program host on the radio station.
The poignant story of the perennial walk-on was written into many of his later films.
In the 1983 edition of "The Legend of the Condor Hero", Zhou Xingchi’s role is "Song Bingyi" and a prisoner. There is a scene where he is going to be caught to practice Jiuyin White Bone Claw for Mei Chaofeng.
He also asked at the time: "Assistant director, can I block it with my hands and then die?" The assistant director’s reaction can be referenced from "King of Comedy".
For Zhou Xingchi, he still can’t forget the feeling of walking around: "Wait, wait, wait endlessly, wait year after year, wait one second a day."
This feeling of hope in times of despair is hidden in the back of Yin Tianchou shouting "hard work" at the sea.
04
A dog?
In 1988, Li ******* invited Zhou Xingchi to star in "Pioneer of Thunder", which won the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor for Xingye, his true film debut.
Li ******* is his Bole, but the two are not angry.
There is a scene in "Ji Gong" where the words "Li Xiuyuan, I want ****" are painted on the wall.
Ji Gong’s real name is Li Xiuyuan, but it was extended to some people to understand that this is Zhou Xingchi using the movie to mock Li *******.
Zhou Xingchi pursues perfection, and keeps reshooting if he is not satisfied with a shot.
This made Li *******, who had long been used to efficient shooting, disdain him, and even scold him, "Acting is not hard work, why are you working hard like a dog?"
Sound familiar? Isn’t this the classic line of the ending of "Journey to the West": "He looks like a dog".
05
Nonsensical bud
When it comes to Zhou Xingchi’s movies, the key word that cannot be avoided must be "nonsense".
Back then, Zhou Xingchi went to play tricks when he had time. During this period, he met Li Lichi, the director who later cooperated the most.
An actor who loves to come up with ideas meets a director who loves to change the script on the spot, and the two hit it off immediately.
Because they lived not far away, they often met at the tea restaurant to discuss the script, feeling like they were "in love".
Wu Mengda, Luo Huijuan and Lan Jieying in "Hero of the World" have all passed away
In 1989’s "Heroes of the World", Wu Mengda, Zhou Xingchi and Li Lichi became the "Iron Triangle".
It is often three people who come up with a new joke on the spot and suddenly burst into laughter, causing the staff next to them to look puzzled.
They have already consciously added jokes during the filming process.
There was only one joke in the original script, but after a live rehearsal, they would turn one joke into two, three or even four – with the polish of the live screenwriters, this is the germ of "nonsense".
06
add play
Zhou Xingchi loves to add drama. When he understands the director’s meaning, he will immediately perform the director’s idea better.
When filming "Su Qier, the champion of martial arts," there was a scene to show the scene where Su Chaharcan, played by Stephen Chow, was raided.
Director Chen Jiashang once said, "I told Ah Xing that he needed a lonely shot, so he stood in front of the camera and looked at it, then walked over and sat on a big smoking bed. Without thinking about it, he started singing Nanyin."
The director was stunned at the time, "It turns out that the most lonely thing is not beating his heart and lungs, not crying, but his singing, his voice is a little mournful."
"As he sang, I watched through the camera, and I thought I saw a genius actor. He was really the best, and I still think he is the best."
07
From Xingzai to Xingye
In 1992, Zhou Xingchi was only 30 years old, but no one in the Hong Kong film industry was called "Xingzai", renamed "Xingye".
That year, Stephen Chow made a total of seven films, and he starred in all the top five films in the Hong Kong box office that year. It was unprecedented and had not been seen since. This year was known as the "Year of Stephen Chow".
In fact, in 1990, in the movie "Gambling Saints" that made Zhou Xingchi shine, Wu Junru’s A Ping had been renamed "Lord Xing" in the movie, which could be said to be a prophecy of God.
From then on, the Hong Kong film industry began to have the saying of "double Monday", and the three of them became the golden signs of the box office.
08
Smoke and mustard
When Stephen Chow was filming "King of Comedy", he asked Cecilia Cheung to audition.
Seeing that she was only eighteen, Lord Xing gave her a pen and pretended to be a cigarette to see how she felt about smoking.
Cecilia Cheung said, "Why should I take a fake pen, just take a real cigarette! I already smoke!"
It was this detail that moved Zhou Xingchi and made him feel that Liu Piaopiao was the role of Cecilia Cheung.
But when it was time to shoot, Lord Xing was not so polite.
After the scene of eating mustard and crying bitterly, Cecilia Cheung went to the bathroom and vomited eight times.
In 1998, the "King of Comedy" and "Glass Bottle" crew happened to rent the same place in Hong Kong to film.
The actors of the two film crews often eat and drink together.
Everyone proposed that the two leading actors, Stephen Chow and Jackie Chan, make cameos in each other’s plays.
Therefore, there are these two classic shots that are difficult to reproduce.
09
Eight beer bottles.
Huang Yifei played the senior brother in "Shaolin Football", filming the scene of Tietou Gong. In order to pursue the effect, Zhou Xingchi exploded eight glass bottles on his head.
It was said to be a prop bottle, but his head was already hematoma.
Zhou Xingchi has been dissatisfied and asked if there are still beer bottles. Even the prop master couldn’t bear it and lied that there were no beer bottles.
Afterwards, the prop master quietly told Huang Yifei that there were actually four more bottles.
This story also became some kind of evidence that Zhou Xingchi was a "tyrant on the set".
I still remember the two singing "Shaolin Kung Fu is good" on the stage, and Lord Xing couldn’t hold back halfway through and laughed three times. Originally, he didn’t plan to use this set of shots, but later because it was too funny, he put it in after making up the editing.
10
Idol Bruce Lee
When his mother took him to the cinema to watch "Tangshan Big Brother", Zhou Xingchi, who was less than 10 years old, was completely obsessed with Bruce Lee.
He loved his childhood idol for decades, and even changed the direction of his life.
In "Gambling Saint", Zhou Xingchi used two toilet stoppers to make a nunchaku, and in "Wu Zhuangyuan Su Qier", the remnant weapons were combined into a nunchaku.
The rehearsals in "King of Comedy" are modeled after Bruce Lee’s "Jingwu Gate," and "Kung Fu" also has a plot to pay tribute to Bruce Lee.
The greatest tribute is, of course, the 2001 Shaolin Football.
When Stephen Chow won the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Director for this film, the first person to express his gratitude was Bruce Lee.
11
Iron sand palm
When he was young, Zhou Xingchi not only liked to lie down at the window and watch people, but also liked to go to the bookstore to read some martial arts books and practice kung fu in his spare time.
He even cooked the beans and stuck his hands in them to practice "iron sand palm".
But he still considered it carefully, and usually only practiced with his left hand. He was afraid of any accidents, and he could use his right hand.
The "Iron Sand Palm" scene was added to "Lord of Destruction." Wu Mengda said that "it was refined in three days, and it cost 600." He also claimed that he and Bruce Lee were brothers.
In fact, in order to learn kung fu, Zhou Xingchi really worshipped Bruce Lee’s senior brother Huang Chunliang as his teacher, so Bruce Lee was Zhou Xingchi’s senior uncle, and the two were considered the same family.
Yuan Bin, one of the "Seven Xiaofu", once teased at the wine table, "If you really talk about martial arts, Donnie Yen can’t beat Zhou Xingchi."
12
Canned abalone
In those years, Zhou Xingchi was dazzling, and Wu Mengda was the most appropriate "golden right foot" by his side.
In the 1990s, they often bought a box of canned abalone to eat after filming, which cost more than 100 Hong Kong dollars and contained only two pieces.
Wu Mengda always gave the big one to Zhou Xingchi.
The last movie they worked on was "Shaolin Football", and since then, "will you work with Xingye again" has been one of the topics that Uncle Da has been asked repeatedly.
Every time, Wu Mengda always answered with certainty.
"As long as I don’t die and he hasn’t retired, we will still cooperate."
Now that Uncle Da has passed away, he can only sigh.
13
Peking University Lecture
Twenty years ago, Zhou Xingchi was invited to give a speech at Peking University, and a student asked him to recreate the classic line of "Love You 10,000 Years" in "Journey to the West".
The shy Zhou Xingchi was a little reluctant, "Now? Here?"
The students kept heckling, but Lord Xing had no choice but to speak, "There was a sincere love that was placed in front of me, but I didn’t cherish it…"
But only halfway through, he lowered his head and smiled. Maybe he forgot the words, but the moment he stopped, the students in the audience connected the second half of the lines in unison, memorizing them backwards.
After the release of "Journey to the West", it was criticized a lot, and the box office was dismal. After being promoted by campus and netizens, it was regarded as a classic.
Interestingly, many years later, "Journey to the West" was re-screened twice in the mainland. Everyone said that "I went to the theater to give Xingye a movie ticket", but Xingye didn’t get a penny when it was rescreened.
The film was jointly produced by the Hong Kong Color Star Company and the Xi’an Film Studio, and the Color Star Company was co-produced by Stephen Chow and Yang Guohui.
After Caixing went bankrupt in 1996, it sold the copyright to Star Media, and has had no relationship with Stephen Chow ever since.
14
A toothpick
It has been rumored in the industry that when Stephen Chow was a director, he even had to worry about dropping a toothpick on the ground.
Chai Jing asked Zhou Xingchi for verification, and Lord Xing subconsciously denied it, "Is there? Who said this? Nonsense!"
Chai Jing quickly smoothed the scene, "He was going to praise you."
He instantly revealed a childlike smile, "That’s good! Yes, I’m that serious!"
In fact, in this famous interview, Xing Ye’s state is not very good.
After the interview, he always felt a little guilty, and even took the initiative to contact Chai Jing 20 days later, hoping to harvest again.
Hence the classic "I’m out of luck, 10,000 years is indeed too long."
15
filmmaker
In 2013, "Journey to the West to Conquer Demons" sold well at the box office, and the Shanghai Film Festival Organizing Committee issued an invitation to Zhou Xingchi, hoping that he would appear at the film festival. Unsurprisingly, he refused.
The organizing committee said that even if they did not participate, they would also like to provide a personal introduction.
At that time, three versions of the introduction were prepared for him: one focused on the actor’s career, one focused on the director’s performance, and one focused on the box office results, waiting for Zhou Xingchi to decide.
At that time, he didn’t reply for a long time, and everyone waited very anxiously until he finally called and said to use "filmmaker".
These five words, which were weightless, accurately summed up his understanding of himself.
Compared with the past, the Chow films of the past ten years have undergone tremendous changes.
He stopped acting, audiences thought he was "not as funny as before," and critics said he was "frying cold rice."
No one owes Star a movie ticket anymore.
After all, even he himself said: "No one owes me movie tickets, I owe the audience."
60-Year-old Stephen Chow has gray hair and may not be young anymore, but his love for movies has not changed.
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