In 1991, Andy Lau and Stephen Chow, the legendary "king without a king", made a comedy titled "Master of Masterstroke" after their first collaboration in "The Gambler", which was set up by Wong Jing.
This time, Chow gave Andy Lau his first kiss on the big screen.
It pioneered the concept of "trickery" and incorporated the whimsy of "nonsense". It took only seven days and one month to complete the awards, and eventually ranked fifth at the 1991 Hong Kong box office with HK$31.38 million.
"The Mastermind Expert" is fondly remembered not only for Chow and Lau's first on-screen kiss, but also for the bridge between the two men, who swapped identities and impersonated each other.
After 30 years, I still remember their "unrecognizable step". It's a shame that Andy Lau's acting challenge of "switching identities" is really shallow and screams "no".
Thirty years later, Andy Lau has finally delivered an almost unprecedented performance in his new movie, a black comedy about "switching identities"!
Who would have dared to imagine that the king, who has just gained 50 million followers on one platform and crushed all the "top streams" in China's entertainment industry, would be watched in a bathrobe, splashed with freezing water at -5 degrees Celsius, and even slapped in the face?
The new movie is now in theaters - "The Crowd.
Lew is the producer and star, Rao Xiaozhi is the director and screenwriter, and Sean and Wan Qian are the lead actors in the story of an assassin who swaps lives with a dragon opera singer: "Top assassin Chow Chuen (Lau) and lone combo actor Chan (Sean) swap identities in an accident. In hitting rock bottom, the killer revisits love and life; in pretending to be a killer, the group act completely reshapes life."
Five-time champion Andy Lau, Sean, who was nominated for the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers for "Sheep Without Shepherds," and "Golden Horse Best Supporting Actress" Wan Xi are all together.
There are plenty of hitches, too:Lei Jiayin is a producer of Chinese opera, Guo Jingfei is a cheap landlord, Liu Tianzuo is a venomous ringleader, Huang Xiaolei is a yakuza's big sister, and Guo Fan is the director of "Wandering Earth.
It's also a bridge between two men with different personalities, statuses and financial resources who "swap identities" - if Andy Lau's swapping of identities with Stephen Chow in "The Greatest Hustle Expert" 30 years ago was just a glimpse of his first attempt at nonsense comedy, then, 30 years later, it's just a glimpse of his first attempt at nonsense comedy, and a glimpse of his first attempt at nonsense comedy. If 30 years ago, Andy Lau's identity-swapping performance with Stephen Chow in "The Crowd" was just a glimpse of his first attempt at nonsensical comedy, then 30 years later, Andy Lau's identity-swapping performance with Sean in "The Crowd" is an in-depth exploration of the core of comedy, and, as Pace Chan puts it, "the core of comedy is tragedy".
Would a rabbit and a wolf, a rich man and a loser, an assassin and a dragon walker, if they were to start all over again, would they change their lifestyles and live like human beings?
Lew plays Considerate, as the name suggests, a top killer who is cautious and considerate in all things.
One day, he has just finished an assassination mission, only to find himself covered in blood. He walked into the bathhouse with his cleanliness and accidentally stepped on a bar of soap!
He suffered a serious head injury, which caused him to not only lose his memory, but also enter the life of 32 year old "Chen" as he was switched with the key to his locker.
PS:When was the last time I saw King in a bathrobe? If memory serves, it was ten years ago with Gong Li in "I Know a Woman's Heart". Salute! To Andy Lau for a long overdue performance.
Sean plays Chen Meng Xiao, a scruffy, down-on-his-luck runt who can't do anything and can't get enough to eat. He's about to hang himself when he finds a free bath ticket at home.
When he meets Zhou Quan at the bathroom reception desk, he is attracted to the man's looks, temperament and bulging wallet. When Zhou Quan stepped on the soap and hurt himself, Chen Mengxiao exchanged the locker key in Zhou Quan's hand!
Unexpectedly, the key he stole not only opened a different life, but also opened Pandora's Box.
Tracked down by a criminal gang, the truth behind the number one killer, and the recovered memories of Synthesis, who mistakenly believes that Synthesis is a single mom, Li Xiang (Wan Xi), who fell in love with her, Chen... How will this life-swapping farce end?
Maybe you've seen the Japanese version of "The Way to Steal the Key" or the Korean version of "The Lucky Key," so I won't play out the ending of "Crowded Crowd.
Some people will surely ask: Chinese remakes of Japanese and Korean films are always subject to the curse of "remake, remake, remake, remake". Will Crowded be an exception?
I just think it's a successful remake for three reasons: First, Andy Lau and Sean's life trajectories and their characters are amazingly consistent.
Lew said that making this movie put him back to work, back to 25.
It took Andy Lau 30 years to go from "Heavenly Love," an idol school that Johnnie To "didn't like" in 1990, to a man who has won five crowns for movies and is recognized as a good actor.
I remember 30 years ago when he made "The Mastermind Specialist", some critics criticized him as "totally unsuitable for hustling" and "inferior and comical". At the time, Lau was still criticized for his acting, even though he had become a top tier actor from "Die Hard".
This time, he went back to the 25-year-old in "Crowded Crowd," to the days when he was a hit-and-miss runner on the set, and to the days when he followed TV to learn acting.
Theatrical considerate, even as a drag queen actor, in the details that almost no one noticed, still has the stubbornness of a "perfectionist";
Outside of the theater, although Andy Lau Libra, but also adhere to the Virgo. For small folders, pay attention to the material and size.
The play's comprehensiveness is the least known "eggplant coffee" on the set; off-screen, Andy Lau was splashed with ice water at minus five degrees, slapped by Xiao Yang without complaint, and even pushed away the chair moved to him by the staff, saying that he wouldn't be able to specialize in...
Who says Andy Lau can't do comedy well?
Today, he's comfortable with black comedy, convincingly demonstrating the extreme personality shifts of characters in dual roles.
From an extremely cool killer, to a small player who can be bullied, to recovering his memory, he is touched by his beloved and gradually unravels his frozen emotional world... He doesn't need to be "excited" to do comedy, and all the traces of his performance become invisible between his gestures.
As Andy Lau says in the movie, "If the actor stops deliberately seeking security, true creativity will fill the space."
It's hard not to. It's his own experience with comedy and acting.
Sean is 41 years old, and the trajectory of his life is in the story of 32-year-old Chan.
Beginning as the "King of Square Dance" in 2007, and continuing for the next fourteen years with comedy after comedy, Sean ended up being nominated for the Golden Rooster Award, the Hundred Flowers Award, and the Macau International Film Festival for "Best Actor" with his film "Sheep Without a Shepherd". "
Just like "Crowded Crowd", Chan bursts into the most magnificent acting at the most critical juncture - all the opening and hanging in the world is accumulation and waste, there is no runway, so where does the glory of the podium come from?
In the movie, Xiao Yang slapped Andy Lau twice, but in turn received more than thirty slaps from Andy Lau!
Lew said, "The director really had to slap three slaps at a time." The director is said to have slapped 12 slaps before taking delivery.
The next day, Sean's face was swollen. Andy Lau heartily praised his co-star: "He trusted me so much and devoted himself to the role." .
Like Chen's line in the movie: "I finally have the chance to be the lead actor, and I'm going to cherish it!"
Rao Xiaozhi, the film's director, spent only 30 million yuan in 2018 to earn 790 million yuan at the box office, and won the "top 10 of the year" with a high score of 8.1 on Douban, which is synonymous with "good movies".
The director's casting was precise. Although Sakai Masatoshi and Kagawa Teruyuki Zhuyu are in front of the Japanese version of "The Way to Steal Keys", but he found Andy Lau and Xiao Yang performed in the Chinese version, have to praise: God is really accurate!
Secondly, as a black comedy with over-the-top humor, full of terriers.
If you're a fan of Hong Kong movies, you'll easily find the hidden stems in "The Crowded Crowd", and have the happy feeling of "looking for diced chicken in a spicy chicken".
There's also Jacky Cheung's classic line:
There's also Andy Lau's own classic "Heavenly Love":
There's also an amusing comparison of "1991 parodying himself":
Thirdly, compared to the Japanese and Korean versions, which focus on life's "key", "Crowded Crowd" is a more realistic version of "Crowded Crowd". Thirdly, "Crowded" has a higher intention than the Japanese/Korean version, which focuses on the "key" to life.
What is the key to life?
Both the Japanese and Korean versions have titles centered around the word "key," but the Chinese version's title is named "Crowded" by Rao Xiaozhi: "Actually In fact, 'crowded' means that a lot of unknown people will get together and roll forward violently."
In the Japanese and Korean versions, the "key to life" is a habit, almost a habit of body memory formed after tens of thousands of hours of hard work, like Andy Lau, who has been a "model worker" in the entertainment industry for decades, and has always had a sincere and pure heart for performing. The first time I saw a movie, I had a sincere and pure heart.
The "crowded crowd" in the "countless nameless people tumbled forward violently", this is in the end Sean played "Chen Mengxiao" or amnesia "understanding", even if life has hit rock bottom. The company's website is a great place to find out more about the company's products and services, and to learn more about the company's products.
You can change your lifestyle anytime, anywhere. If you have the courage, if you dare, you can push the reset button.
Fifteen years ago, Andy Lau gave Ning Hao 3 million dollars and changed the future of Chinese movies.
In 2021, "Wandering Earth" director Guo Fan, with a lot of help from Ning Hao, embraced Andy Lau in a crowded room and said, "Thank you for your contribution to Chinese cinema.
When "The Mastermind Expert" was released in 1991, people said the honest and kind-hearted "Che Wenjie" in the movie was Andy Lau himself.
Thirty years on, Andy Lau's healthy dose of sunshine and positive image is still a flag of the times.
This actor is China's "top stream".
"The Crowded Crowd" has grossed 214 million dollars in 9 days, and many movies have been scheduled. Go to the movie theater to see. Don't miss this excellent comedy. #Lew, Sean, and Wansi are all crowded#