As a solo director, Tsui Hark's love and obsession with Jianghu will be well understood by the audience. After the new millennium, Tsui Hark, who tried to carry the banner of "New Martial Arts", successively created films such as Biography of Shushan and Seven Swords. Although he has won a good box office, it is difficult to regain his lofty aspirations.
As soon as Di Renjie's Kingdom of Heaven, with fantasy martial arts and overhead background labels, was released, it instantly won unanimous praise from audiences who were tired of watching domestic fantasy pseudo-blockbusters. Although, I only got a "passing score" of 6.5 points on Douban, considering that costume action plays are getting worse and worse on the big screen, this achievement is actually reasonable.
The greatest hero in Empire of Di Renjie is Andy Lau who plays Di Renjie. Andy Lau's greatest contribution to this film is to break away from the traditional image of a judge and combine bravery, tenacity, wit with vigorous and elegant skills to create a classic image that transcends the past.
The reason why Hua Zai stopped performing is that Tsui Hark is the director of this series. The director's function is not only to shoot, but also to consider all aspects of film production, including cost. Compared with Andy Lau, one of the four heavenly kings, Mark Chao's salary is much lower. In addition, the entire lineup of the Di Renjie Empire is very expensive. For example, Li Bingbing is an international coffee maker, Tony Leung Ka Fai is the winner of the Golden Horse Award and the Golden Academy Award, and Deng Chao is also a proper first-line superstar.
As the four kings, Andy Lau's salary is definitely much higher than that of Mark Chao who plays Di Renjie in the last two films. Since the first film was very successful, but the investment was also very large, investors must have this consideration. The second part is full of young actors, and the actor's pay must be much lower.
Because the story happened in different times, the years don't match. Di Renjie in the second and third films is a young Di Renjie, and Di Renjie is like Dali Temple at that time, while Di Renjie in the first film is a middle-aged Di Renjie, which spans a long time. At this time, Andy Lau was allowed to play the young Di Renjie, which did not have a good influence on his age.
Actually, Tsui Hark and Andy Lau have a very good relationship, and they really want Andy Lau to continue to star in the second and third films of Emperor's Imperial China. However, the first film of Emperor's Imperial China was very popular and attracted many investors, so investors asked Mark Chao to be an actor in Emperor, so Tsui Hark had to invite Mark Chao. Actually, the relationship between Tsui Hark and Mark Chao is not good at all. It can be said that two people don't know each other, but such a decision will be made because of the requirements of investors.
After that, Mark Chao's performance was also very good, which did not have a negative impact on the Di Renjie Empire, making Tsui Hark's film very successful. In fact, as a director, sometimes it is very helpless. They choose their own actors for various reasons, and sometimes they can't choose an actor they are proud of. So this is also Tsui Hark's regret. Today, Andy Lau plays an important role in the entertainment circle.