On July 26th, Mr. Wang Yu became the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 56th Golden Horse Awards, and the legend of the one-armed sword finally got the best praise.
At the time of the award, Mr. Wang Yu was already 75 years old, and the name Wang Yu is unfamiliar to modern audiences. However, throughout the history of Chinese-language cinema, Wang Yu is the most unforgettable presence.
Wang Yu was born in 1944, and was a young man on the Shanghai Bund, where he accumulated a good foundation in martial arts at a young age.
After he left for Hong Kong with his family at the age of 16, his life as an actor really began.
Wang Yu is one of the second generation of elites from Shanghai to Hong Kong, with his upbringing in Shanghai culture combined with a natural sense of style, and juvenile temperament combined with a strong physique, which made him stand out among his peers.
With the rise of martial arts culture in Hong Kong in the 1960s, there was an overwhelming demand for martial arts movies.
Born in Shanghai, Wang Yu spoke Shanghai, Mandarin, and Cantonese, and naturally became Shaw's main star in the Asian Chinese region.
After signing with Shaw's in 1965, Wang Yu starred in his first martial arts movie, Jianghu Qiwen, which was the first Mandarin-language martial arts movie.
In the early 1960s, when Cantonese-language films dominated martial arts cinema, Mandarin-language martial arts films were rare.
The birth of Jianghu Qiwen was also a continuation of the southward fragrance of the Haiku martial arts movie The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple.
"Jianghu Qijin" is adapted from the novel "Jianghu Qijinzhuan" by Pingjiang Buxiao Sheng, the movie and the Republican blockbuster "Fire burning Red Lotus Temple" became a lineage.
In 1965, the boss Run Run Shaw to young director Xu Zenghong as handsome, Wang Yu, Ling Bo, Tian Feng and other big names are involved in it, two years, the output of the "Jianghu Qixiang" "mandarin ducks Swordsman" "qin sword enmity" trilogy.
Perhaps Wang Yu's performance in Jianghu Qiwen is far less rich and profound than that in One-Armed Sword.
But the teenage knight-errant's costume is elegant and strong, and very juvenile; the heroism between his eyebrows seems to be like a knight-errant coming out of a painting.
Even director Xu Zenghong himself admitted that Wang Yu is a worthy warrior in the screen.
A year later, when director Chang Cheh was casting for The One-Armed Sword, Wang Yu, who had the aura of a young warrior, became the obvious choice for the lead role.
Wang Yu was fortunate enough to make The One-Armed Sword the breakout martial arts movie of its time. In 1967, when movie ticket prices were low, The One-Armed Sword broke the million-dollar mark and became the biggest grossing phenomenon of the year.
The One-Armed Sword is a highly romanticized interpretation of individual heroism; the revenge of the broken arm makes the tone seem tragic and grim.
The One-Armed Sword is a more sustained shock than a fling or a tickle.
The One-Armed Sword was a change of pace from the movies of the time, and revenge-based martial arts films dominated the market.
Wang Yu played the one-armed sword Fang Gang comes with heroic attributes, blood masculine suicidal hero, became the best screen myth of the year.
Wang Yu was synonymous with chivalry in those days. He was a hero in the theater, killing evil and evil, but outside the theater, he was a man of his own accord, a man of great beauty.
Because of the "One-Armed Sword", Wang Yu's value rose rapidly, the highest pay in Hong Kong; and he set up this monument of one-armed warrior, no one can surpass.
Following the one-armed sword of the martial arts universe of Wang Yu, Chang Cheh tailored for Wang Yu, who starred in The Great Assassin, The King of the One-Armed Sword, The Divine Sword and The Golden Swallow.
Big brother Wang Yu directed and starred in the kung fu film Dragon and Tiger, and his personal hero image was further cemented on screen.
In fact, compared to his contemporaries, Wang Yu was very rebellious and arrogant, and he was always reluctant to be a follower.
At the same time, Wang Yu's strong aura and unruly nature eventually led to his breakup with Shaw Brothers.
When Zou Wenhuai's Golden Harvest was founded in 1971, Wang Yu partnered with Zou Wenhuai, and his one-armed sword sentiments were further extended.
This time, Golden Harvest partnered with Japan's Toho, and the two superheroes, One-Armed Sword and Zatoichi, were together for the first time in the movie.
The One-Armed Sword travels to the Orient to punish the wicked and the Blind Man puts on a great show with Mars on Earth. Unprecedented dual warrior setup, making the first half of Wang Yu's life a true legend.
Before Bruce Lee, Wang Yu was a unique superstar in Hong Kong. Wang Yu's powerful influence also shaped a generation of Hong Kong people's perception of martial arts.
In particular, his powerful and unruffled demeanor on the screen became the perfect image of a hero for many young people.
A number of Hong Kong stars, including Tsui Hark, Chan Ho-Sun, Lee Yan-Kong, and Dillon, were benefited by Wang Yu's films. In their later directorial careers, they paid homage to, or remade, the very thing that kept them from letting go of their childhood martial arts complexes.
With a natural love of chivalry, Wang Yu has always been happy to repeat the interpretation of the hero.
Similar to Bruce Lee, Wang Yu's films are full of personalized labels, and in the latter's many works, personal heroism has been consistently released with great density.
Taiwan is the real blessing of Wang Yu, who left the constraints of Hong Kong's big companies in 1971, and brought Xu Zenghong to Taiwan to set up his own business, and starred in such heroic masterpieces as The Black and White Road, The Gun That Chases Life, and One-Armed Fighter.
Thanks to Wang Yu's continued influence in Hong Kong and Taiwan, all the movies he starred in showed strong box office momentum.
The One-Armed Sword has spawned a series of One-Armed Fists, which has provided rich ground for Wang Yu's "One-Armed Universe" to expand.
The One-Armed Boxer was directed by Wang Yu and released in 1971. The movie's portrayal of the trials and tribulations is three times more refined than that of The One-Armed Sword.
The movie's conflicts and fights are extremely intense and sensible in the face of a similarly deep hatred.
After all, Wang Yu's masculine beauty is the soul of the martial arts world as it should be, with his sword-like brows and fierce rebelliousness.
The tragedy of One-Armed Fighter, the sadness of Broken Soul Gun, and the purity of The Sword all illustrate Wang Yu's martial arts life from different angles.
In Taiwan, the martial arts worlds of Wang Yu and Gu Long were ****together. Afterwards, the two of them fell in love with each other and became friends at first sight.
Because both of them have a brash character, not to be petty, resulting in the adaptation of Gu Long's movie in the Luo Wei, by Wang Yu to coordinate the solution, Gu Long quickly agreed.
For the younger generation, Wang Yu is willing to bring up. 20 years old in Golden Harvest sat on the bench of Jackie Chan, with the director Luo Wei went to Taiwan to pay a visit to the ancient dragon, more by Wang Yu to facilitate the good things of Jackie Chan.
Jackie Chan was able to break away from his role as a henchman, and became the leading man of a new generation of Dragon movies. After that, Wang Yu and Jackie Chan starred in the same movie, which became a rare and famous scene.
In the 80's, the movie "Minions" and in the 90's, "Burning Island" were both gifts from Jackie Chan to Wang Yu.
In the late 70s, Wang Yu had already retired from acting as a warrior for half his life. In the world of martial arts to dominate a party, can be outside the theater or more real than the movie jianghu.
Life is like a play, the play is like life. After Wang Yu enters Taiwan, his personal bravery is displayed off-screen, and he gradually becomes involved with the underworld as his enemies continue to fight.
The ruthlessness of the martial arts character gradually brought Wang Yu into the underworld. With Wang Yu's own fame and status, he gradually became a core member of Taiwan's Bamboo Gang.
In the real world, Wang Yu was a man of action.
Good and evil have their rewards. With the "three big bloodshed" exposed, Wang Yu was hunted down by his enemies in the Four Seas Gang, and was injured and suffered from lawsuits, Wang Yu's career as a gangster came to an end in 1981.
In the late 80's, Wang Yu chose to leave the army and return to the field, and in the early 90's, he faded out of the film and television, middle-aged man born in Taiwan and cozy and dashing. Outside of movies, Wang Yu was busy with real estate and industrial investments.
It wasn't until he was invited by Chen Kexin that Wang Yu made his comeback to the movie industry and reinvented himself as a warrior.
The 2011 release of Warrior is a tribute to Wang Yu and The One-Armed Sword, and the film Wang Yu has been a great success. As time passes, it becomes clear that Wang Yu is as stable as a mountain and as dynamic as a fire.
When he was nearly 70 years old, he suffered a stroke and had to leave the movie industry for a while.
And the legend of chivalry he left behind has become the best witness of martial arts movies.