[b][align=left] Li Pi Yuan Jia, Huo Zhan Qun Jie! [/align][/b]
After watching the film and interviewing a bunch of creative people, we found that Huo Yuanjia is an unconventional film, but the prototype of the character has become the starring body double, and the story trend can basically be said to be the projection of Jet Li’s mental journey. In other words, Huo’s road to martial arts in the film is Li’s life evolution ladder ―― when he was a teenager, he was weak and sickly, and after practicing martial arts, he inflated himself and got into trouble, his simple and wonderful first love, his patriotic spirit awakened, and finally he realized the true meaning of martial arts …
"Wu = stop fighting", an equal sign derived from the word-making method, refers to the soul of Huo Yuanjia; The film can be explained by another equal sign: Jue Yuan (Shaolin Temple)+Jet Li+Huo Yuanjia (story) = Huo Yuanjia! This is not a movie puzzle. When "Sleepless for a Hundred Years" sounded in the cinema, the powerful movie episode "Shaolin, Shaolin" more than 20 years ago came back to my ears. The image of Jet Li in the second half is also very similar to that of middle-aged Jue Yuan. You will have your own feelings after the film is released on the 25th of this month.
In the film, Yuan Heping vividly shows the martial arts moves, and the boxing and leg weapons take turns to go on stage: the lost fist versus the western fist, the China pike versus the German spear, and the three sticks versus the western knife … Surprisingly, "Huo Yuanjia" is not a dry action movie. In the film, Huo Yuanjia went away from home for a while, and the emotional ripples were dispelled by green mountains and green waters, just like an old song: kind eyes, no more thoughts …
[b][align=left] Evolutionary Tetralogy [/align][/b]
[b][align=left] The Life of Lee in Huo Yuanjia [/align][/b]
[align=left][b]1. Origin-the success of young people who learned martial arts [/b][/align]
In the film, Huo Yuanjia was obsessed with martial arts since childhood, but his father wouldn’t let him practice martial arts. Yuanjia and his playmate Nong Jingsun secretly copied the Huo family’s boxing scores and practiced hard every day, and finally defeated the bully with the immature Huo family’s boxing. Since then, their confidence has greatly increased. There is a scene in this part that is quite brilliant: Huo Fu (played by Zou Zhaolong) plays a set of elegant and chic Huo Family Boxing in his own courtyard. Huo Fu looks like an ancient hermit, and his playing style is characterized by softness in the middle and rigidity in the middle. The gown flutters with the wind, and the strength is gradually strengthened. This scene also determines that Huo Yuanjia is determined to become the first in Tianjin.
In reality, Jet Li also began practicing martial arts at the age of 8, because of the words of the enlightenment master wu bin: "Be a hero no matter what you do, don’t be a bear." Hearing this, I was very unconvinced and really decided to practice martial arts. After two or three years of exercise that will make him have nightmares, Jet Li won the first place in the junior group and the first place in all-around in the national Wushu competition in 1974; Then from 1975 to 1979, he won the championship for five consecutive years.
[b][align=left]2. Variation-young people are more competitive than inviting disasters [/align][/b]
After becoming a famous martial artist in Tianjin, Huo Yuanjia’s personality became impetuous and arrogant because of his fierce edge. One day, his apprentice was hit hard by Qin Ye, another master in Tianjin. He didn’t ask why he broke into Qin Ye’s birthday party and threatened Qin Ye to sign a life and death certificate on the spot to compete with him. Although he won in the end, he lost the lives of two people he loved most in his life, his mother and his daughter! Huo Yuanjia, who was in agony, was delirious, so he went away.
This is similar to Jet Li’s life in his youth. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jet Li appeared in several films, such as Shaolin Temple, Shaolin Kid, Huang Feihong, and so on. After his great fame, in 1992, due to interpersonal disputes and money disputes, he suddenly took off his costume and stopped filming. Then he quarreled with the manager Luo Dawei, and the new manager Cai Ziming was shot dead. The third manager’s own brother-in-law was killed in a Mongolian car accident, and even divorced his ex-wife Huang Qiuyan. After a series of blows, Jet Li returned to Beijing to live in seclusion, and no one knew his whereabouts for a long time.
[align=left][b]3. Evolution-Love changes fate [/b][/align]
In the third stage of Huo Yuanjia’s life, Yueci (played by Sun Li) played the role of a spiritual mentor, and his role was similar to that of a philosopher king, conveying Buddhist thoughts through trivial matters in agriculture, so that Huo Yuanjia could get rid of his rage. During his three years of anonymity, he and Yueci developed feelings, and the quiet and peaceful pastoral life also made him sink his heart to think about the true meaning of martial arts to a person and a nation.
Nina Li Chi has the same significance for Jet Li. In an interview before, Jet Li said that they are still very loving, and their love for Nina Li Chi can cost them all fame, status and even their lives. Usually they like to stay at home quietly, watch books and movies, and often discuss the philosophy of life. This helped him understand that making a movie is not the most important thing, so he also canceled the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to accompany Nina Li Chi to give birth.
[b][align=left]4. Symbiosis-constantly striving to help others [/align][/b]
After the establishment of Jingwumen in Huo Yuanjia, the western strongman Obi-yin threatened to sweep the sick man of East Asia, so he rushed to Shanghai to challenge Obi-yin and beat the giant with his own lost fist. The foreign chamber of commerce planned a competition in which four foreign experts challenged Huo Yuanjia. Huo Yuanjia knew that it was time to exert the spirit of "striving for self-improvement". Although he seemed to have no strength because of being poisoned in the final confrontation with Japanese samurai Anyo Tanaka, he still insisted on not going to the hospital and said to the Japanese master who advised him not to fight again: "Living is never a matter for one."
Lines like this, though very didactic, also reflect Jet Li’s spiritual beliefs in recent years. In addition to always conveying in the film that violence is not the solution to the problem, he also insists on doing good deeds. Therefore, this time filming Huo Yuanjia, Jet Li didn’t care about the box office at all, but just wanted to convey some positive information to help those who are mentally disabled.
[b][align=left] Kung Fu Syllogism [/align][/b]
[b][align=left] Huo Yuanjia motion decoding [/align][/b]
Jet Li has been stressing that he will never make martial arts films in the future. That is to say, after Huo Yuanjia, we will never see Jet Li fight again ―― unless you argue with him face to face one day ―― but how can he have a conflict with us?
When it comes to movies, Jet Li admits that "Huo Yuanjia" is summing up his experience for more than 40 years: "This is a movie about my life", that is to say-your story, listen to me! This transformation and transposition broke through the wall of time between the historical prototype and him for more than 100 years, and with the compilation of new plots, the two became one in the film.
In the first half of the movie, those incisive martial arts moves remind people of the martial arts films of the Shaw era, which are full of masculinity. After the life-and-death battle, the rhythm suddenly turned to quiet and soft, which also made people feel very enjoyable. In this way, the ring in the movie is divided into the first half, and the first half shows the courage of Laozi, who is the best in the world; In the second half, the martial arts friends will stop at once. Together, they constitute the legendary story of Huo Yuanjia, and also correspond to Jet Li’s own view of "Three Realms of Kung Fu".
[b][align=left] 1. Concentrate on your skills and be brave and ruthless. [/align][/b]
[b][align=left] Attacking Zhao Jian’s bladder with double fists in the high-altitude ring [/align][/b]
About 15 to 20 minutes in the film, Huo Yuanjia, who is full of youthful spirit, is a bit arrogant, and his martial arts concept is that he must defeat his opponent. He and Zhao Jian fought on the high platform, and the ring was cleverly set at high altitude, with special visual effects and psychological oppression to the audience, which was amazing. In this scene, Huo Yuanjia showed abnormal competitive spirit, so he laid hands on him with maliciousness, and attacked more people. The fatal blow to Zhao Jian was to attack his bladder with his fists, which was murderous.
[b][align=left] Tear down the building and chop Qin Ye’s bald head with a knife [/align][/b]
The venue of the confrontation was Guyue Restaurant, and the result of the war was that there was nothing everywhere, although the restaurant didn’t collapse as exaggeratedly as other martial arts films. In this war, Huo Yuanjia’s aggressive and ruthless dark psychology reached its peak. In the narrow and crowded space, the two first fought with broadswords, from upstairs to downstairs, even in the pool, and then fought hand-to-hand in the wine cellar. Huo Yuanjia first cut a deep blood hole in Qin Ye’s bald head with a knife, and now he will grab his head and smash it into the wine jar. In addition, the music is quite poisonous, which is very shocking. Four hours later, Qin Ye died, and the fatal blow came from Huo Yuanjia punching him in the heart.
[b][align=left] Second, martial arts are very proficient, and the importance of spiritual strength is revealed. [/align] [/b]
[b][align=left] Learn the lost fist from small things [/align][/b]
After getting along with the blind girl Yueci for several years, Huo Yuanjia’s personality calmed down to a tranquil state of mind, realized the true meaning of martial arts from the trivial things in the farm, abandoned the old martial arts bad habits such as the dispute between sects, and created the lost fist of "breathing with the sky". Huo Yuanjia, for example, just started transplanting rice seedlings, and he only cared about brute force, so that the seedlings were inserted irregularly and sweated profusely. Later, he learned how to adjust the breath and transplant rice seedlings evenly with the farmers, but when he saw the children in the countryside catching dragonflies, the dragonflies suddenly stopped in mid-air, and suddenly flapped their wings and flew, the trace was difficult to determine, which inspired Huo Yuanjia deeply. It can be seen that life is the best university.
[b][align=left] Hercules with four or two hands [/align][/b]
The battle between Huo Yuanjia and the foreign strongman Obiyin was also a battle of four or two thousand catties, such as the spirit ape hovering between the rocks and mountains. This battle was known for Huo Yuanjia’s skill of prancing and moving. This tournament is Huo Yuanjia’s initial use of "Fan Trace Boxing", which has been able to give full play to the basic features of this boxing. First, it is to avoid the fist and strength of the enemy who is obviously stronger than himself, wasting the opponent’s energy. Second, it is to make full use of his strength and even complete some difficult movements with the help of the opponent’s height, which is not only effective but also beautiful. Crucially, the highest state of Fan Wei Boxing is not aimed at hurting and knocking down the opponent, so when Obi Yin fell into the ring and his head almost hit the nail, Huo Yuanjia hooked his body with his foot and saved his life.
[b][align=left] Third, I no longer want to attack anyone, but I am influenced by spiritual strength. [/align][/b]
[b][align=left] It doesn’t hurt to leave one hand in the ring [/align][/b]
At the beginning of the film, flashback is adopted, which shows the scene between Huo Yuanjia and three foreign masters, gallants, after defeating the hungry Hercules with a fan fist. First, the telephoto lens gives a panoramic view of old Shanghai, and then gradually zooms in and enters the interior of a theater in the French Concession. The drums sounded in a hurry, and Huo Yuanjia defeated three foreign "muscle machines". In the process, Jet Li used many kinds of weapons, and his action style not only paid attention to the truth of short, flat and fast, but also opened and closed. But in this life-to-life duel, Jet Li punches with one hand and stops abruptly in the opponent’s chest.
[align=left][b] The spirit of self-improvement moved the opponent to admit defeat [/b][/align]
In the last play, the battle between Huo Yuanjia and the Japanese samurai Anyo was very oriental. First, the three-section cudgel competed with the Japanese sword. The most amazing thing was that Huo Yuanjia "had empty gloves and white wolves" and exchanged weapons between the two sides. Then in the unarmed competition, because Huo Yuanjia was poisoned by the Japanese, he kept spraying black blood in the fight, knowing that life was running out, and he still took to the ring to continue the contest. Finally, the disciples were not allowed to take revenge, because "that would only bring more hatred." It’s nothing to talk about the wonderful ending, but emotionally, Huo Yuanjia’s spirit of "self-improvement" is so embarrassing that even Anye was moved and admitted that he lost.
In the film, Yue Ci, played by Sun Li, said: When the hair grows, it is easy to knot, so it is easy to wash it. Just like people, you should always wash yourself.
[b][align=left] Jet Li: You win when you don’t want to win others [/align][/b]
"I am a martial arts student and feel that I have the responsibility to say something at an appropriate time." Before the release of Huo Yuan A, the last kung fu film starring himself, Jet Li said in an exclusive interview with this magazine. The movie image of this kung fu superstar, up to Huo Yuanjia, coincides with Sun Tzu’s Art of War, that is, "the disease is like the wind, Xu Rulin is like the fire, and the aggression is like a mountain". As a mirror-like film of Jet Li’s life, the rhythm in "Huo Yuan A" is also so "Fenglin Volcano".
In fact, for him, "Huo Yuanjia" is not a film, but more like a megaphone that can play images, and there are many things that he really wants to say, which is inevitably suspected of preaching. But this is exactly the realm he pursues. "Regardless of the box office" means that people may not be able to pay attention to the evolution of life. Confucius said: you can talk with words, but not with them, losing people; You can’t talk with words, but with them, you make a slip of the tongue.
[b][align=left] Play Kung Fu: Learning martial arts is to stop fighting [/align][/b]
Nandu Weekly: Both screenwriter Wang Bin and director Yu Rentai have said that "Huo Yuanjia" has been integrated into your 42-year life experience, which is actually you. Please talk about your understanding of Huo Yuanjia.
Jet Li: From the story, Huo Yuanjia wanted to be the best in the world since he was a child, so he made a big mistake, which led to the ruin of his family. At the bottom of his life, he gradually found that it was not your own business to live, but also friends, family and society, and finally he learned the martial arts and the true meaning of life. "Huo Yuanjia" is to show that China’s martial arts spirit is not just fighting, not to say that winning others is the best, but the most important thing is self-improvement. At the same time, there should be no dispute between factions and who is the best, so he established the "Jingwu Hall".
Nandu Weekly: But in people’s minds, martial arts usually means fighting.
Jet Li: I study martial arts, and I feel it my duty to say something at the right time. In people’s minds, it seems that being physically strong and subduing others by force is the truth of martial arts, but in my opinion, force can only subdue people’s body, but not their spirit. What can change? Love can be changed, which is a higher level. From the Chinese word-making method, the decomposition of "Wu" is a "stop" and a "ge", which means a technical method to stop fighting. It contains China’s 5,000-year-old culture, including Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, as well as moral issues such as how to be a man.
Nandu Weekly: Is this film heroic?
Jet Li: The general martial arts world is good and bad, good and evil. Good people are bullied. Go up the mountain and ask for reinforcements. After the bad ones are eliminated, the reinforcements are heroes. Personally, I think this is very serious, because it belongs to western values. The west worships heroes, and thinks of a god because his greatness has saved us. Oriental culture is to govern by doing nothing, everyone is equal and has the ability to save themselves. In "Huo Yuanjia", I want to express that he is a very human person, not much different from us, just to hope to be the best in the world, like an Olympic champion. But when his goal was achieved, some things were lost and gained beyond his control.
Nandu Weekly: How is this change in Huo Yuanjia reflected in the film?
Jet Li: After that, he fled to the countryside. Under the influence of nature, he realized that life is not the fame and fortune he saw, but what he should get and what he can’t get. Only then did he understand that martial arts training required the establishment of a martial arts club. Without a portal, everyone put all the excellent things in it. Martial arts practitioners want to strengthen themselves morally, intellectually and physically in an all-round way. After every place is strong, it is not necessarily necessary to defeat the other side. Standing here will deter the enemy from hitting you and play a deterrent role, which is better than self-defense. I think Huo Yuanjia’s philosophy is that China people are bullied by Eight-Nation Alliance because they are not strong enough.
Nandu Weekly: What are the characteristics of Huo Yuanjia in action style?
Jet Li: There is nothing in the action itself. Two hands and two feet will not create three hands and three feet. If we want to say breakthrough, I think it is through those martial arts that we show how to be a man, which is an internal part. Externally, everyone pursues higher, farther and faster, but when the body reaches a certain level, you can’t tell what kung fu is and what action is, so what you can tell is your spiritual breath, which is not found in ordinary kung fu movies.
[b][align=left] Put the facts straight: Hollywood is only for small corners [/align][/b]
Nandu Weekly: Can we regard Huo Yuanjia as a reflection of yourself?
Jet Li: I’m not sure whether I can say this or not. We did a lot of research before shooting, and some ideas should be his own, we understood them, or I forced what I understood on him. What I want people to see is that I have changed. I can’t be Superman or Batman, but I’m just a strong man with strong body and mind and the courage to face life. Here, I don’t have to be Huo Yuanjia, just agree with his way of thinking.
Nandu Weekly: But this story is a bit like your experience?
Jet Li: Self-expansion, frustration, and understanding some truth are the same in most lives. At the age of 9, because the master said, "Be a hero no matter what you do, don’t be a bear", I was not convinced and began to learn martial arts seriously and wanted to be a hero. Before the filming of Shaolin Temple was released, I broke my leg during training, had an operation for seven hours and had a plaster cast for eight months. Later, I went to Hollywood to develop, and the film company invited a famous doctor to do a general examination. The conclusion was that I would either stop filming immediately or prepare a wheelchair. However, my idea now is to help some people personally. If I give up the platform of movies, I can’t share my feelings with you.
Nandu Weekly: What do you think of the development in Hollywood these years? Did it work?
Jet Li: This is just a process in life. There is no definition of success or failure in it. I can understand that others look at this problem from various angles. I am well aware of China audience’s expectations of Jet Li, what westerners think, and what level your business value is in real life. Think about it, you are a hero in Africa, I am not racist, and I went through an identification process when I got to China. Of course, investors should see the range of your market value and the final positioning. It’s not what the Americans did to me. If we were Americans, we would be smart businessmen.
[b][align=left] Jet Li’s theory of evolution [/align][/b]
The martial arts and actions in the movie only add fuel to the fire, and more importantly, the story. Only when you agree with that story will you resonate with his actions. The charm of movies is that they are the same hugs and kisses, some of which can make people wait and move, while others are annoying, which is completely in the same story.
Nandu Weekly: Chow Yun Fat Jackie Chan came back for interviews several times, and they all showed that Hollywood could not make them particularly satisfied. Why do you think?
Jet Li: What coordinates do you use to measure the success of three people in Hollywood? There is also an indicator for the Olympic Games! Top eight, top five, this movie is difficult to have indicators. That is to say, in American movies, these people only have a little living space in a small corner, and this space belongs to third-rate and second-rate.
Nandu Weekly: Is this why you chose to come back?
Jet Li: I think the saying of going back and out means that people have not fully understood the social situation today. Now it’s global economic integration. The film is the same as any of my products. I hope the whole world will see it if it’s made in China! I make movies in Europe and the United States, and I am also an audience all over the world. It doesn’t matter where this place of origin is, a person who knows the operation of the market won’t have such regionality.
[b][align=left] Be reasonable: success is the father of failure [/align][/b]
Nandu Weekly: Will Huo Yuanjia be your favorite character since filming?
Jet Li: I think I like many characters very much, although I don’t agree with some of them. I have been talking in the west for many years. Violence is not the only way to solve the problem. People are always asking if you can make a movie about other ways. So I spent a lot of effort on "Huo Yuanjia" and wrote it from my personal struggle. But if you want to see the Huo Yuanjia in the 1980s, you may be disappointed, because there will be no concept of tearing up the sick man of East Asia and knocking you down is a majestic hero. Now it is another era.
Nandu Weekly: What do you think of all the great directors in China who shoot martial arts movies in costume?
Jet Li: Quite simply, failure is the mother of success and success is the father of failure. After several generations’ efforts, several China films have been very successful, which is both good and bad. The good thing is that so many excellent directors are willing to make action movies now, which can take China movies to another level. I remember that no one looked up to this kind of movie before, and I belonged to a disadvantaged group. People thought you were a business. The bad thing is that according to the law of historical cycle, Hong Kong was such a situation fifteen years ago, and then the audience got tired of watching it. Therefore, the best time is the first volume, flowers will wither when they are most brilliant, and the process of reincarnation.
Nandu Weekly: What should I do as an actor?
Jet Li: Normal! It’s been popular for three to five years. In 2000, I joked with a friend that the craze would soon be over. Basically, I think five years is a generation, and the demands of the audience are always new. The flower has withered, but soon it will come again next spring!
Nandu Weekly: But what we see is that most of the kung fu actors in China were ten years ago, and there are no newcomers.
Jet Li: There used to be a saying in China, "Every ten years is a performer". Jackie Jet Li, seen by westerners, has been practicing kungfu for 8 hours every day since he was 8 years old, so they say "real kung fu". If you don’t have so much accumulation, you suddenly say that I am a kung fu star. At first glance, you used to be a drama school. How can you be convincing? So I think this is the process of scouring sand in the waves of nature!
[b][align=left] It makes sense: don’t want the box office to be ideal [/align][/b]
Nandu Weekly: You said that the original intention of filming Huo Yuanjia was to understand that 280,000 people commit suicide every year in China. Will a movie help 280,000 people commit suicide?
Jet Li: As far as I’m concerned, I don’t tell how many people I want to help to do anything. No, I just do it with all my heart. If I can help one, I can’t help one, and there is no problem. The process and action are the most important things.
Nandu Weekly: You used to be an autistic person yourself. What changed you?
Jet Li: What pains us in life is because we don’t understand it. It’s a disease that causes us pain. Buddhism or Taoism, there are ways to relieve your pain. Therefore, there are two ways of thinking in civilized society now. One is to build a system that most people agree with by law; The other is like western society using religious binding force to prevent in advance, that is, discussing the aspects of mind and environmental protection, so that you can know more about life and be happy.
Nandu Weekly: What do you think of your movies for so many years?
Jet Li: I think people have some meaning at every stage. In the past, I made more than 20 heroic films, that is to say, unfair things in society were solved by methods that were not allowed by law, as most western science fiction films did. In my opinion, there are two kinds of movies. One is purely commercial. I am a very passive actor. I am chosen by others to participate in commercial activities and be an idol in their minds. Another is that you want to make an ideal thing, no matter whether it sells for money or not, you just want to speak your mind. So I don’t care about the box office of Huo Yuanjia, but I only care that everyone can receive the message I want to convey.
Nandu Weekly: You said Huo Yuanjia was an ordinary person, so why did he become a legend?
Jet Li: It should be said that he is not a personal hero, but an idea that can awaken more people to strive for self-improvement, keep fit and improve their hearts. In this way, each individual is a person, and all individuals are strong, which is martial arts. If only one China is great, can you be a hero if you knock down several Japanese and Americans? That’s just a very good skill. He knocked down many people with the same thinking, and it didn’t help China people’s way of thinking, did it? So what was Huo Yuanjia’s later martial arts meeting that influenced hundreds of thousands of people? Not by martial arts, but by his self-improvement spirit.
(transferred from Nandu Weekly)
