Gong Li said in an interview that she regretted not letting go of her performance when she collaborated with Stephen Chow in a movie in 1993.

In 1987, Chow Yun-fat filmed the movie "Prison".

There was a scene that required Chow Yun-fat to go down into the ditch. When the lid was opened, everyone present was blinded by the stench. However, Chow Yun-fat jumped in without saying a word. .

When the shot was completed, everyone on the scene was moved by his professionalism and applauded him.

This is the professional quality that a good actor should have.

But sometimes some good actors are unwilling to cooperate with the filming arranged by the crew because of temporary differences in ideas.

Gong Li made such a mistake once when she was young.

In 1993, "Farewell My Concubine" directed by Chen Kaige was a great success at the 46th Cannes Film Festival, winning the Palme d'Or.

Gong Li also won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Ju Xian in the film.

In the same year, Gong Li was invited to Hong Kong by Yongsheng Films to participate in "Tang Bohu Spots Autumn Fragrance" adapted from the story of Tang Yin in "A Warning Word".

Tang Yin was a poet, painter and calligrapher in the Ming Dynasty. His name was Yin, his courtesy name was Bohu, and he was also known as the Master of Taohua Temple.

The story of Dian Qiuxiang was first seen in "Jiao Chuang Miscellaneous Records" in the Wanli Year of the Ming Dynasty. It was later compiled into "Warning Words" by Feng Menglong and titled "The Marriage of Tang Jieyuan Yixiao".

As early as 1940, this story was adapted into the movie "Three Smiles", and was later remade twice in 1964 and 1969, both in the form of dramas.

Because of this, Gong Li accepted this movie.

But when the filming started, she saw all kinds of nonsensical shooting techniques, which were far from her own ideas. Gong Li had an opinion and mistakenly thought that the crew was trying to "fix" her.

As a last resort, the crew had to make compromises because of Gong Li's unwillingness to cooperate, which also led to two obvious regrets in the film.

The first is the part where Mrs. Hua listened to Tang Bohu telling a story. Tang Bohu ended with a set of percussion music, which made everyone in the hall happy. We saw that Mrs. Hua and the other Sanxiang's hair were all red. It stood up, except for Qiuxiang.

At that time, Gong Li was afraid of being punished. No matter how Li Lichi and Zhou Xingchi persuaded her, she just refused to make her hair stand up, so she had no choice but to do it.

In another scene, Qiuxiang was hit by the fatal scholar's leg and was beaten beyond recognition.

Originally, Gong Li was asked to put on the ugly makeup of bruises and swelling, but she refused, so in the end she had to use a stand-in to complete the job.

According to Zheng Peipei, who played Mrs. Hua, she was surprised when she saw the plotless scenes, but she still insisted on her professional ethics as an actor.

And because Gong Li refused to do many scenes, they were all changed to her. By the end of the performance, she completely let go. Instead, she found it very fun and left an unforgettable memory to this day.

Gong Li recalled this play many years later, saying that she was studying formal performances in an acting school and did not understand the nonsensical way of comedy, so she acted awkwardly and could not let go. Even if I dare to do it, I feel regretful and it has become a regret in my life.

In fact, people often comment that "Tang Bohu Spots Autumn Fragrance" is just a commercial comedy movie without artistic quality. In fact, this is not the case. In order to make this movie well, both the director, screenwriter, and actors worked hard. .

The characters, plot conflicts, etc. are by no means made up out of thin air, but are based on real history. The plot design is also very particular and artistic.

The story of the movie begins with Tang Bohu being implicated in scientific examination fraud and later being released after clearing his grievances.

After Tang Bohu returned to Suzhou, he happened to meet a beautiful girl in a boat while traveling around the lake. Tang Bohu fell in love with her at first sight. Later, he followed her to Wuxing, Zhejiang, and found out that this woman was a maid from the palace of an eunuch.

So he disguised himself as a down-and-out scholar, sneaked into the house and became the companion of the two young masters, and named him Hua'an. Finally, he was able to get close to the maid and found out that her name was Qiuxiang.

Master Hua admired Tang Bohu very much and betrothed Qiuxiang to him. On their wedding night, Qiuxiang learned that he was the person she met at the painting boat that day.

Later, a guest came to visit Taishi Hua’s house and recognized Tang Bohu. It turned out that Taishi Hua had admired his talent for a long time, but he had never met him.

In the end, Taishi Hua gave Qiuxiang a generous dowry and sent the couple back to Suzhou.

This was originally a one-line story. Although it has a strong comedy color, it is not very funny.

The three screenwriters Li Lichi, Gu Dezhao and Chen Wenqiang reworked this story, introduced Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao, who had an intersection with Tang Yin in the official history, and processed it into another "Jianghu line" parallel to the theme story. The whole story is vivid, interesting and interlocking.

The changes include the following points:

Tang Yin’s lifelong best friend, the famous calligrapher Zhu Yunming (from Haozhishan) in the Ming Dynasty, is portrayed as a gambler. Played by Chen Baixiang, he basically became a funny supporting role.

The eight wives in Tang Bohu's family didn't have much explanation at first, but here they became hopeless gamblers. Notice that among them was Lan Jieying, who was as beautiful as a fairy at that time.

Mrs. Hua in Washington became a powerful Huashan warrior and the love rival of Tang Bohu's mother, Zhu Qian. She once pursued Tang Bohu's father when she was young.

Tang Bohu’s family became the third-ranked martial arts family in terms of weapons (Tang Family Overlord Spear). His father Tang Tianhao was killed by the scholar who killed him, so the scholar's sword ranked second, Xiao Li's flying knife ranked fourth, and the first one was Xiao Li's flying knife.

The fatal scholar became a celebrity around Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao, and Ning Wang was a mortal enemy of Hua Taishi in the court.

Because of the addition of these settings, the difficulty of getting Tang Bohu and Qiuxiang to get married has been greatly increased. He must try his best to conceal his true identity, find an opportunity to resolve the conflict with Mrs. Hua, and at the same time repel the powerful enemy King Ning.

At the same time, due to the addition of the martial arts element of weapon spectrum ranking, the addition of those fighting plots has become logical.

Martial arts instructor Pan Jianjun, I believe many people will be unfamiliar with this name, but if you look at the photo, you can recognize him at once. He was the one who was humiliated by Huo Tingen in "Fist of Heroes" That one.

In fact, Pan Jianjun is the martial arts director of TVB and has directed countless TV series. Stephen Chow got to know him well when he was at TVB. Therefore, many of Stephen Chow's classic movies were designed by him with martial arts moves.

Unlike other big-name action directors, Pan Jianjun and Stephen Chow get along well, and he will try his best to design actions according to Stephen Chow's ideas, so we can see a lot of non-weird style fights in the movie.

The most classic ones are the imitations of "Street Fighter" and "Dragon Ball", both of which were popular elements in the 1990s.

In 1993, after years of polishing, Stephen Chow's movies had formed a stable style. The biggest surprise when watching his movies was that they were full of baggage and made people laugh out loud.

Many of these nonsensical memes are still classics and imitated today, such as Zhu Zhishan’s performance art paintings, stool percussion, poison advertisements, etc. His greatest achievement is to give our annoying insects and cockroaches a name - Xiaoqiang .

One day includes loose bags, half-step nails with a smile, feet that are beyond recognition, beautiful fists restored, and 9527. These unique vocabulary of this film are also impressive.

The character Tang Bohu was just a talented scholar in the original "Three Smiles" story. In the film, while giving him the attributes of a martial arts master, it also gave him a dual nature.

Firstly, when he was reduced to a domestic slave and had a low status, he was a small character character that Stephen Chow was used to playing;

Secondly, this character has both wisdom and talent, as well as good looks. Martial arts means both civil and military skills, and he is kind-hearted and well-behaved. Although he is inferior to others, he cannot hide his noble side.

This kind of characterization is obviously more friendly and three-dimensional than the image of Tang Bohu in previous editions of "Three Smiles".

In fact, the real Tang Bohu in history went through three marriages, and finally ended up with his brothel confidant Shen Jiuniang. The couple made a living selling calligraphy and paintings, and there was no story about Qiuxiang.

The story of Ji Daoren and Qiuxiang was recorded in the book "Lu Shu" written by Yao Lu in the Ming Dynasty. Press on Tang Bohu.

The Prince of Ning, Zhu Chenhao, who appears in the film, does have a deep relationship with Tang Bohu, who was once recruited as an aide.

Later, it was discovered that King Ning had the intention to rebel. In order to get rid of King Ning, Tang Bohu had to pretend to be crazy and act like a fool, but was eventually driven away by King Ning.

Later, King Ning rebelled and was suppressed by Wang Shouren, the governor of southern Jiangxi. King Ning was defeated and killed, and his entire family was also exterminated. Tang Bohu protected himself wisely and finally escaped the disaster.

Although it is a nonsensical style, when writing the script, the three screenwriters Li Lichi, Gu Dezhao and Chen Wenqiang must have spent a lot of time exploring useful materials from Tang Bohu's life experience, so that the character of Prince Ning appeared.

The serious attitude and talent of Hong Kong screenwriters at that time can also be seen from this. It is not unreasonable for Hong Kong movies to flourish like that in the 1990s.

But having said that, it has been 26 years since "Tang Bohu Spots Autumn Fragrance" was released, with a high Douban score of 8.6. Just imagine if Gong Li could fully let go of her performance back then, this movie would probably become an irreplaceable part of her career. of classics.

But what happened in the past cannot be retaken, which is a pity...

Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Passionate Heart

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