What are the martial arts films directed by Yuan Heping?

Born in Guangzhou. Nicknamed "Big Eyes", his father, Yuan Xiaotian, is a descendant of a Beijing opera family, a famous Hong Kong actor and martial arts coach. In 1950s, Yuan Xiaotian starred in nearly 100 kung fu movies, depicting Huang Feihong, a martial arts expert in China history. Yuan Heping also participated in the performance. From 65438 to 0970, he became the martial arts director of Crazy Black Boy and entered the field of directing. He has served as a martial arts instructor for Dangkoutan 1972, Gecko 1972 and Little Bastard 1973. 1978 independently directed Snake Fist in Eagle Shadow and Drunk Fist in Tiger's Eyes 1978, which was a great success and became a famous director of kung fu films in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and Japan. 1992 participated in the production of "Huang Feihong Ⅱ Men Should Stand on Their Own Two Feelings" and won the Best Action Guidance Award in the 12 Hong Kong Academy Awards in China. 65438-0993 participated in the production of The Iron Horse of Young Huang Feihong, and was nominated as the best action director in the 13th Hong Kong Golden Statue. Yuan Heping was nicknamed "Big Eyes" when he was young, but now he is regarded as "Eight Lords".

Yuan Heping once dressed as the "King of Scarlet" in the Hong Kong film King of Scarlet, which imitated the American film King Kong, but now he has become the hottest action guide in the world with the American film The Hacker trilogy. The contrast between the past and the present, like a dream, seems incredible, but in fact it is the positive result of years of hard work and super strength of "Big Eye Eight Lords".

(1) First Trial: Humorous Kung Fu Film

Yuan Heping was born in a martial arts family, and his father Yuan Odahara was an ugly Peking Opera and 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 is highly respected in this industry. Yuan Xiaotian has seven children, and Yuan Heping is the second. Since childhood, I have studied martial arts with my father, and studied with brothers and sisters such as,,, and Yuan Longju. At the age of 20, he entered the film circle, a dragon and tiger martial artist and a walk-on actor. At the age of 25, I first worked as an action designer for Crazy Black Boy directed by Wu Siyuan. 1970.

In 1970s, Hong Kong Kung Fu movies were all the rage. Every year, Kung Fu films, which account for more than half of Hong Kong film production, are produced and released, which is called the golden age of Kung Fu films! Because the fighting routines of the old-school Huang Feihong Kung Fu films (starring Kwan Tak-hing) that used to lead the trend are out of date, the action design of the kung fu films at that time mostly followed the trends of modern boxing in Bruce Lee, Shaolin Kung Fu in Zhang Che and Liu Jialiang in the late Qing Dynasty, and ancient costume martial arts fighting in Chu Yuan and Chia Tang. The result of imitating the trend is naturally shoddy and monotonous, and the audience is getting more and more bored. In addition, Xu Guanwen Brothers' life comedies are very popular, which has an impact on Kung Fu movies. By the end of 1970s, the creation of Kung Fu movies in Hong Kong was inevitably in trouble-at this time, Yuan Heping began to become famous, and he made far-reaching breakthrough achievements in the innovation and improvement of Kung Fu movies.

From 65438 to 0978, with the help of Wu Siyuan, a famous filmmaker, Yuan Heping, who had done action design for many films, was finally promoted to director, and started shooting two kung fu films, Snake Skillful Hands and Drunk Boxing, within one year. Although these two films are common plots in which unruly teenagers learn from hidden masters and finally defeat powerful enemies, Yuan Heping makes them novel. For the first time, he set the tone for the kung fu comedy Snake-shaped Diaoshou and Drunken Boxing. At the same time, he carefully designed vivid, dexterous and acrobatic pictographic martial arts movements, highlighting the fun of the practice process, which was completely different from the previous kung fu film mode and made the audience feel refreshed.

After the release, snake-shaped skillful hands and drunken fists received excellent response. Both Kung Fu comedies ranked among the top ten box office movies of that year, and even entered the Japanese market. Yuan Heping is also a blockbuster, becoming the third successful example in the Hong Kong film industry after Liu Jialiang and Sammo Hung were promoted from action film directors to directors. In addition, Yuan Heping's two films also won the favor of Jackie Chan, who was once a box office poison. The image of a stubborn teenager full of joy and vitality in the film is simply tailored for Jackie Chan, and Jackie Chan, who has been trained in drama school for ten years, is naturally familiar with the difficult acrobatic moves designed by Yuan Heping during his internship. It is difficult to succeed with such seamless cooperation.

After "Drunk Boxing", Yuan Heping and Jackie Chan parted ways, and the two pioneers of Hong Kong-made humorous kung fu films continued to carry forward such films along their respective favorite directions. If Jackie Chan's Funny Fist and Little Brother Coming Out are free breakthrough routines, 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 theme, but the director skillfully turned Master Huang's serious and orthodox middle-aged legend into a naughty and humorous story of teenagers. Until "Lin Shirong" and "The Brave Are Fearless", these two films with the same theme of "Huang Feihong" were changed back to the authentic "Master Huang" Kwan Tak-hing, but they were already cartoons in seriousness. Besides, Master Huang no longer appears as the protagonist, but takes the story of the young apprentice as the main line of the plot, and the ending is still a humorous story of young people getting into trouble and a drunken boxing routine of intense scenes. When it comes to action, both films are both rigid and flexible, but Lin Shirong was designed by Yuan Heping and Sammo Hung. Brave and Fearless is Yuan Jiaban's collective creation, but the protagonist is still Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan's younger brother Yuan Biao.

Because of the box office reputation of Lin Shirong and The Brave Don't Lose Drunk Boxing, Yuan Heping's position as a director of kung fu films is certainly more stable.

(2) Several storms: fantasy kung fu movies and fashion action movies.

When it comes to the use of special effects in movies, Yuan Heping, who is good at shooting real kung fu, didn't start with The Matrix as many people thought. In fact, as early as 20 years ago, Yuan Heping began to combine boxing kungfu with movie stunts, and created a unique type of Hong Kong film-"fantasy kungfu film". However, in those days, Eight Lords didn't play computer stunts, but local stunts including smoke, prestige, magic and acrobatics.

Perhaps inspired by 1980' s Ghost Play directed and performed by Sammo Hung, Yuan Heping also directed the fantasy kung fu film "Magic of Daoism" in 1982, which went further and was more mysterious. "Ghost" still has some plots of cheating and catching rape in real life. In the end, the main event, the battle of ghost possession, is still represented by fists and fists. Until Yuan Heping's Daoism, it was totally surreal plot logic and absurd techniques. Yi Rong's murder, revenge in hell, begging for rain and paper-cutting into butterflies are obviously a magical legend. It can be seen that Yuan Heping has made great efforts for this film. Inspired by the traditional folk culture in China, he not only designed extraordinary acrobatic body movements, but also used a lot of traditional magic techniques to make the characters, props, scenery and fighting scenes in Taoist magic present a strange style that is both scary and humorous, even in today's Hong Kong movies.

After the release of Daoism Magic, it was a great success, which inspired Yuan Heping and Yuan Jiaban. Later, it made some magical kung fu films, such as Shi Tian meets evil spirits, Zombies are scared, raiders of the lost ark, etc., and continued to work hard on the design of all kinds of weird and magical action scenes. It's a pity that these films only use the rhythm wonders, and the plot content is simple and rough, far less than Sammo Hung's fantasy kung fu films such as Scary Man and Mr. Zombie. Ching-Ying Lam and Billy Chen both checked the action, and Huang Bingyao, Huang Ying and other famous screenwriters carefully arranged the plot, so they finally became formalistic works, with little response and worse box office.

Seeing that the scenery of "fantasy kung fu movies" is no longer satisfactory, and "Laughing Tai Chi", a kung fu comedy in the early years of the Republic of China, is not satisfactory, Yuan Heping decided to keep up with the trend of the times and make a fashionable action movie that was very popular that year. His first work was 1985' s Meet My Opponent. In this highly acclaimed film, Yuan Heping combined popular break dancing with traditional martial arts and acrobatics, creating 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. Donnie Yen helped Yuan Heping design many wonderful and novel modern styles, which were quite different from the previous Kung Fu comedies of Eight Masters.

Especially the action movies about money laundering by policemen and robbers, the story is simple and boring, but the fighting scenes designed by Yuan Heping, Donnie Yen, Yuan Xiangren and Aaron Kwok (these four people have now entered the international film world) completely broke the routine mode of traditional kung fu movies, and integrated modern boxing and decomposed martial arts moves, with quick and agile movements and sharp shapes, and Donnie Yen's leg skills were also fully exerted.

However, although Yuan Heping insists on innovation in fashion action fighting, it is always difficult to reproduce the glory of making kung fu comedies. In the late 1980s, 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 Best Action Guidance Awards. In contrast, Yuan Heping's action design is not bad, but the overall quality of participating films is mediocre, which wastes the talent of Eighth Master. In fact, whether 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. ...

(c) Brilliance again: the trend of martial arts films in the 1990s.

In 1990s, Hong Kong set off a new upsurge of martial arts movies, which Yuan Heping can make full use of. 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.

199 1 Tsui Hark, who is famous for his innovation and change, is going to remake the story of Huang Feihong. In the first episode, Liu Jiarong, Yuan Xiangren and Yuan Xinyi were invited to design actions for the film. New wine in old bottles was a great success after its release, with a box office income of 30 million yuan. Tsui Hark won the Oscar for Best Director and Yuan Xiangren for Best Action Direction. The following year, Tsui Hark took the opportunity to launch the sequel "Men Want to Be Self-reliant", and this time only invited Yuan Heping as the action director. Eight masters do not bear the great trust. Apart from 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 as for the most exciting 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 very amazing. Therefore, Yuan Heping deserved to win the Oscar for Best Action Direction that year!

1993 and 1994 are the heyday of Yuan Heping's creation, and he has served as seven kung fu works in one breath, such as Iron Chicken Fighting Centipede, Young Iron Horse, Tai Sanfeng, Hero Su, Wing Chun, Hero and Legend of Fire Cloud. Moreover, when cooperating with Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Yang Ziqiong and other kung fu stars, the eight masters are different from person to person every time, and tailored according to each person's characteristics. For example, if Donnie Yen has good leg skills, 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 has profound martial arts and methodical moves. Therefore, Yuan Heping designed more unique and heroic actions for him. Furthermore, it will change with the change of the drama. For example, in Jet Li's "Iron Chicken Fighting Centipede", "Tai Zhang Chi Sanfeng" and "Jason Wu Hero", eight masters arranged three different styles of kung fu tricks for Jet Li, namely drunken boxing, Tai Chi Chuan and free fighting. Compared with Jackie Chan's acrobatic and humorous drunken fist, Jet Li used a hard drunken fist from fist to meat 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 his most satisfying work is The Iron Horse of Young Huang Feihong. The film was written and supervised by Tsui Hark, and it is also the theme of "Huang Feihong" that the eight masters are good at. Although it tells the story of Huang Feihong's youth, it writes the feelings of Huang Qiying and his son in thick ink, which is very rare in the works directed by Yuan Heping. As for the action scenes, Yuan Heping returned to the traditional kung fu movies and kept shooting more coherent real actions, especially violence and excitement. The "shadowless leg" kicked by suspension spring in "Men are Men, Strive for Self-improvement" is also reproduced by Donnie Yen's fast leg in "Iron Horse". In addition, the Southern Hongquan, which Master Huang is really good at in history, has also become the main application of this film against the enemy, instead of using northern kung fu indiscriminately like Jet Li's Huang Feihong series. In addition, even at the end of the film, suspenders are used.