It’s already 2021, and some people are still debating “Should I be Wong Jing or Wong Kar-Wai?”.
·Recently, Wang Jing appeared on the variety show "Director Please Advice" as a producer.
This was a speech by a film critic on the show. After hearing this, Wang Jing just said: A slight smile will never make you smile.
·"Director Please Advise"
Wang Jing is actually very helpless about this old joke. Wang Jing said: "Wong Jing and Wong Kar-Wai don't conflict either!"
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· "Director Please Advice"
Regarding this topic, Cai Kangyong gave a particularly intuitive view through actions. When choosing a producer, he chose Wang Jing without hesitation .
·"Director Please Advice"
Because Wang Jing can tell him how to "complete the movie most efficiently" and "maximize good luck and avoid disaster."
From a certain perspective, Wang Jing is definitely underestimated.
Wong Jing was born in Hong Kong, China, in 1955. His ancestral home is Shaoxing, Zhejiang, which produced many cultural figures such as Cai Yuanpei and Lu Xun. His father is Wang Tianlin, a famous director of the older generation in Hong Kong, China.
·Wang Tianlin and Wang Jing as a child
After graduating from the Chinese University of Hong Kong at the age of 21, Wang Jing entered the industry as a screenwriter. Five years later, he directed his first film in Shaw Brothers The movie "Thousand Kings Fight Thousand Tyrants".
The IP "Gambling" has successively produced more than 20 film and television works including "God of Gamblers", "The Gambler", "The King of Kings 2000", "The Bird" and the "Macau Storm" trilogy.
·2017 Douban netizens’ evaluation of "Thousand Kings Fighting Thousand Tyrants"
Wong Jing is not the first "gambling" film in Hong Kong, China, but Wong Jing has made a He has strongly influenced the industry to establish a fairly complete "gambling film universe" and created many classic film and television images such as "The God of Gamblers", "The King of Gamblers" and "The Devil of Gamblers".
·The only thing not included in Wang Jing's "Gambling Universe" is "Gambling Monster" - Lu Benwei
Before "Marvel Universe" entered the Chinese market, "Gambling Universe" It can be said that there are almost no rivals in terms of performance, and profits are guaranteed.
In the "Gambling Universe", "God of Gamblers" directed by Wang Jing in 1989 is equivalent to the "Iron Man" of the "Marvel Universe", and is an important node in the reincarnation of the entire IP.
The outside world's evaluation of "God of Gamblers" is, at best, only a very good commercial film. It acknowledges its historical status but downplays its creative skills.
In fact, the movie "God of Gamblers" is not only good-looking, but also very advanced.
Film critics have always criticized Wong Jing for borrowing, stealing ideas, and copying scenes, and often pitted Wong Jing against Wong Kar-wai, who prefers literature and art, or mainland sixth-generation directors Jia Zhangke and Jiang Wen.
In fact, Wang Jing had already used this method of placing a small character on a strange street to be watched by onlookers to show the protagonist's inner confusion and helplessness as early as 1989 in "God of Gamblers".
After amnesia, the "God of Gamblers" Chocolate, whose IQ is equivalent to that of a child, was abandoned on the street by the knife boy played by Andy Lau
· "God of Gamblers" (1989) Wong Jing
Habitual thief Xiao Wu was caught by the police and temporarily handcuffed to a telephone pole
· "Xiao Wu" (1998) Jia Zhangke
The scene of using a condom to blow up a balloon is better than Jiang Wen's " It’s Always Sunny” was five years too early, and condoms also served to reinforce the conflict between maturity and innocence.
·"God of Gamblers" (1989) Wang Jing
·"Sunny Day" (1994) Jiang Wen
The most exaggerated one is the knife boy quilt Ng Man-tat's character Cheng Ge collects debts. The composition of the scene where Knife Tsai falls downstairs and stares awkwardly at Ng Man-tat is almost the same as the classic scene in "Spider-Man" 13 years later.
·"Spider-Man" (2002) Samuel Marshall Raimi
As for the understanding of "feet", Wang Jing is obviously better than the one who just filmed "Reservoir Dogs" in 1992. It's still early for Quentin. Before he can directly capture the scent of California's athlete's foot, Wang Jing's camera has already focused on Hong Kong's athlete's foot.
·"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (2019) Quentin Tarantino
I think it is impossible to say that so many great directors later paid tribute to Wong Jing, so I can only guess: Is Wong Jing Traveling through time?
The mystery of Wang Jing’s movie is not limited to the “gambling universe”.
In 1986, Wang Jing launched a "girl-chasing/boy-chasing universe" focusing on urban romantic comedy with "The Hardcover". Find the shadow in big-ticket comedies.
The first film, "Hardcover Chasing Girls", is based on the frequent embarrassment of a Malaysian tour group after a group of losers reported incorrect goods, so you now named this film "Ma囧". No violation at all.
·"Chasing Girls in Hardcover" (1987) Wang Jing
·"People on the Road to Misfortune" (2010) Ye Weimin
Wang Jing appeared again in 1993 The "Alternative Martial Arts Universe" was launched with "The Legend of the Dragon Slayer: The Demon Sect Leader". 20 years ago before the word "blackening" became popular, it deconstructed the good and bad characters in classic martial arts in advance.
· "Careerist" Zhang Wuji
What is incredible is that in this movie, Wang Jing used the Huashan Sect to spoof an organization, but in reality, the organization did face a crisis later. There were some doubts, and netizens called Wang Jing a "prophet".
Many readers may say that you only used the commercial films that Wang Jing made in his early years that were pretty good to provide evidence. Why don't you talk about the bad films that Wang Jing made in recent years?
Has Wang Jing ever made a bad movie? Quite a few.
But what goes against common sense is: Wong Jing’s highest-grossing movie to date is his worst-reviewed movie in recent years - "Macau 3".
·"Macau 3" (2016)
On the one hand, there were overwhelming negative reviews. After leaving the theater, some viewers commented, "I haven't seen such a bad movie in 27 years." On the other hand, it brought Wang Jing to the ranks of directors with a box office of 1 billion for the first time.
·Wong Jing was denied the Golden Broom Award for Most Disappointing Film, Director, and Ensemble Performance for this film.
Behind this contrast, there is a point that the public may not understand. The fact that I am willing to admit - Wang Jing is too "bad" for his time.
Taking "Macau 3" as a representative, people say that the reasons why the movie is bad are basically confusing logic, superficial story, exaggerated plot, and excessive consumption of crowd sentiment and cast.
In other words, this type of film does not look like a complete movie at all, but more like a bunch of short videos that are forced together, lively, curious, gimmicky and chaotic.
·"Macau 3" is a mix of explosions, gunfights, prisons, gambling, beauties, singing and dancing, and robots
In 2016, some major events that seemed insignificant at the time also happened , for example, Douyin was launched in September of this year, and this year Kuaishou added a live broadcast function and became even more powerful in the market.
End consumers under the 4G network are turning their attention from social mode to short video mode.
An era of eye-catching, crazy and distracting short-term entertainment has arrived, and people are becoming more willing to consume some easy instant entertainment.
"Detective Chinatown 3", released earlier this year, received very similar criticism to Wang Jing's "Macau 3" a few years ago, but the same thing is that they both made money.
Wang Jing predicted the arrival of the traffic era and the habits of consumer terminals in advance, and achieved extreme monetization in this way.
Instead of talking about nobility, we should talk about nobility first.
Looking at Wang Jing’s works in recent years that have been classified as bad films due to low ratings, almost every one of them has a bad reputation, but every one of them is making money. Many netizens in big cities are curious about these movies. Who is watching?
Wang Jing’s talk on “Roundtable” in 2019 already gave the answer. Wang Jing is still ahead of the curve when it comes to sinking the market.
"Third, fourth and fifth tier cities are the largest markets for Chinese-language films."
Wang Jing's advancement is also reflected in his many content production concepts that transcend the times.
In his early years, Wong Jing made some third-level films that were vulgar but achieved good results. During that period, Wong Jing even realized that he respected female audiences.
"I want female viewers to go in and watch it without blushing. I think that's fine."
· "Uncle Four Flavors" (2019)
Wang Jing is also one of the first people in China to promote the industrialization, professionalization, and streamlining of films. He has exposed many "previous Tell me if you have it, then tell me if it’s good or not.”
·"UP! "Bi Chat Movie Room" (2021)
Wang Jing is also very accurate in reading people. His participation directly accelerated the fame of a series of superstars such as Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau, Stephen Chow, Qiu Shuzhen, Shu Qi, Zhang Weijian and so on. .
Qiu Shuzhen captured two generations in one shot after Wang Jing planned the transformation.
Wang Jing is like a survival master. He can always adapt to the changes of the times in advance, make the best resource allocation in time, and survive.
· "Tucao Conference" (2018)
Some people even say that Wong Jing insisted on starting production when the Hong Kong film industry was at its lowest point, and was the first to come to the mainland to try the co-production model. It made a lot of bad movies, but it also kept many people in the industry employed so they wouldn't starve to death.
Wang Jing’s judgment on personal and industry destiny is quite historical materialistic.
He said that whether it is the French New Wave films of the 1960s or the Italian Western cowboys of the 1970s, everything will eventually fade into an inevitable cycle.
· "NetEase Talk Club" (2021) "TENET" is old
When everyone began to lament the decline of the glory of Hong Kong movies, Wang Jing said: "There have been no Hong Kong movies for a long time. Now, there are only Chinese-language movies.”
This may be the best era for movies, and this may be the worst era for movies.
Although Wong Jing did make a lot of bad movies, in terms of making money, he is like a god of war.
The person who wrote "Water Margin" couldn't let go of fame, and the person who wrote "Dream of Red Mansions" couldn't let go of love.
Wang Jing is like Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng who wrote "The Golden Lotus". Many times, hiding in secular scenery and Xia San Road, he looks like a person who has no knot at all.
Stan Lee plays a passer-by in his movie, and Wong Jing plays a declining god in his movie.
He appeared in his movies as a pervert, a fool, a hapless man and other buffoons, and was sometimes shot dead within two minutes of his appearance.
·The "whole job" is all left over from Wang Jing's play
Even in his rare tear-jerking film "Stupid" that has no commercial attributes at all and tells the story of family and love among marginalized groups. In "Children", he also did not forget to be playful after being sad.
A terminally ill single mother just passed away silently behind her mentally retarded son.
When the male protagonist returned home from a funeral, he asked Ke Shouliang to sing "I haven't been a big brother for many years" in the bathroom.
Paradoxically, most of Wang Jing's works with sufficient freedom, especially the martial arts TV series he later wrote and directed, had tragic endings.
In "Eight Heroes", except for the team pastor Su Wen, all members of the team were wiped out.
In "Little Fish and Flowers", except for the title of the play, everything is wrong.
"The Best in the World" is a multi-threaded fatalistic tragedy, with each character becoming more miserable than the last.
These tragic martial arts films have earned Wang Jing high praise. Some people even say that when Eunuch Cao retired from "The Best in the World", Chinese martial arts films went back 20 years.
Wang Jing strives to play the role of a smooth loach in the rolling world, but as time goes by, there is inevitably some deep sadness hidden deep in his talent.
·"Characters of Chinese Martial Arts Movies" (2008)
Wang Jing is indeed a contradictory person.
He has always said that he will never overspend or lose money, but he will also invest in some literary films that seem to be unable to return the money.
·"Days and Nights in Tin Shui Wai" (2008) When Xu Anhua could not find investment, only Wang Jing invested in this literary masterpiece
Wang seemed to always be calm and humorous when talking. Jing, but she would suddenly come down seriously and say that she felt that Anita Mui was not happy.
·Wang Jing talks about Anita Mui in his early years
Maybe Wang Jing’s works show a kind of dislocation on the time scale, but Wang Jing cannot transcend time after all.
In 1993, Wang Jing's "Heaven Slaying the Dragon: The Demon Cult Master" was released at the box office, and the box office was very unsatisfactory, and Wang Jing's originally planned second film was also aborted.
This is a rare Waterloo in Wang Jingguangying’s life.
At the end of the play, Zhao Min, played by Zhang Min, suddenly looked back and left a sentence: "Go back to Dadu and find me."
Twenty-eight years have passed, and Zhao Min finally Broken appointment.
Wang Jing too.
Well, Zhao Min broke the appointment after all.
Wang Jing too.
Wang Jing too.