Time Network News The increasingly silent Hong Kong movies have recently exploded again! The movie "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" (Hong Kong title "Poisonous Tongue") officially broke through 100 million Hong Kong dollars in the first two days of Hong Kong box office, becoming the first Chinese movie in Hong Kong film history to have a box office of over 100 million. Legendary Hong Kong stars such as Stephen Chow and Jackie Chan did not achieve results at their peak, but this movie actually achieved it.
"Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" directed by Wu Weilun, Huang Zihua, **, Xie Junhao and other main *** a case of injustice evolved into a wrestling field between the legal profession, the powerful and the celebrities, and the lawyers pursued justice under many difficulties.
It is not accurate to say that the success of "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" is completely unexpected, because just last year, the movie "Still Think You’re the Best" (Hong Kong film title "Food and Play"), which also starred Huang Zihua, achieved a good result of more than 70 million Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong, and the box office in the mainland also exceeded 100 million. For a small-budget love movie, it can be described as a remarkable achievement.
Huang Zihua starred in both popular movies. For this name, Cantonese-speaking audiences should hear it well, and even fans have given him the title of "Zihua God". For many non-Cantonese-speaking audiences, Huang Zihua’s name seems very unfamiliar. Who is this suddenly rising "King of Hong Kong Films"?
Huang Zihua was born on September 5, 1960 in Hong Kong, China. His professional identity is very diverse. He has worked as an actor, host, director, screenwriter, singer, and founder of Hong Kong Dongduxiao… As a movie actor, "The Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" and "Still Think You’re the Best" can be called Huang Zihua’s most successful works. In the field of TV dramas, Huang Zihua has already had a masterpiece. In the field of Dongduxiao he created, he has long been a memory of the times in Hong Kong.
Grandfather of Hong Kong Dongduxiao
In 1984, Huang Zihua graduated from university and returned to Hong Kong to apply for the TVB acting training class. But it just stopped that year, so he had to sign up for the only screenwriting class that TVB was still recruiting at that time, and decided to enter the industry from screenwriting and become an actor. After that, Huang Zihua joined the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre Troupe, Commercial Radio, and served as a host and screenwriter on RTHK’s "Feature Youth" and "Sex is Good" programs.
By 1990, his career had not improved. Huang Zihua had the idea of retiring. But before retiring, Huang Zihua decided to arrange a wayward curtain call for himself.
Huang Zihua spent nine months writing a screenplay, the manuscript of Dong Duxiao. On the evening of August 30, 1990, in the cultural center’s venue, which can only accommodate more than 300 people, Huang Zihua began his first performance of Dong Duxiao’s "The History of Flesh and Flesh in the Entertainment Circle." A person’s monologue lasted more than 90 minutes, and the audience was thunderous with applause and laughter. Huang Zihua became popular in Cantonese and began his own era of Dong Duxiao.
The word "Dongduxiao" was invented by Huang Zihua, which is a paraphrase of English stand-up comedy. We now generally translate stand-up comedy as stand-up comedy. Dongduxiao inherits many elements of stand-up comedy and stand-up comedy, but it also has its own characteristics.
"Dong Tuk" is a Cantonese word that means "a person standing upright and motionless." In the daily context of Hong Kong people, "Dong Tuk" has a slightly derogatory meaning and is used to describe those who "stand where they do nothing, do nothing, and are stupid."
In the performance process, Dongduxiao usually adapts according to the interaction with the audience under the stage, and the topic is not fixed. Usually there is only a general framework, and the topic is constantly changed within the framework as the thinking changes, telling stories and expressing opinions. Dongduxiao pays great attention to the interactivity between the stage and the stage, and there will be many direct conversations between the performers and the audience, which are usually interspersed with various stage performances, such as dancing, singing, lottery, recitation, etc. In terms of content, Dongduxiao will use humorous language to criticize the current shortcomings, satirize current political figures, expose social phenomena, and reveal deep-seated human shortcomings, so that the audience can think about society and themselves in laughter, and gain something. It focuses on "thought-provoking" rather than simply entertaining for entertainment. The Shanghai-style Qingkou founded by Zhou Libo also has a shadow of Dongduxiao, which imitates Huang Zihua, and can be regarded as the mainland version of "Dongduxiao".
Huang Zihua received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Alberta in Canada back then. He also worked as a screenwriter and host. He was eloquent and humorous, and Dongduxiao became the most important stage for Huang Zihua’s acting career. Unfortunately, his Dongduxiao was performed in Cantonese, and the context was different, so it was difficult for Mandarin audiences to grasp the beauty of it. This is also an important reason why Huang Zihua has long been "a god" in Hong Kong, but is little known in the mainland.
Created the TVB ratings myth
After the success of the Dongduxiao performance, Huang Zihua’s development in the film and television industry has finally picked up.
In 2000, Huang Zihua and Zheng Yuling’s fashion situation comedy "Love between Men and Women" was broadcast on TVB, and the ratings were popular. The highest audience rating was as high as 50%. It is still one of TVB’s ratings myths.
"Love between Men and Women" tells the story of two people who were originally at opposite ends, walking together by mistake, and their complex and subtle emotional relationships have triggered a series of humorous and lighthearted stories.
The female lawyer Mao Xiaohui (Zheng Yuling, played) is a typical career-oriented woman who thinks highly of herself. Her love, which is proud of her career, is blank, and she is very much looking forward to the arrival of love when she is lonely. After returning from the trip, she saw that the company had undergone great changes. The boss arranged a loose and careless teacher, Yu Letian (Huang Zihua, played), to be her assistant. Although Xiaohui was extremely unwilling, she could not resist the boss’s instructions. Xiaohui thought that Lotte was a lower-level man than her, and Lotte could not stand Xiaohui’s arrogance and confidence, and became a grudge enemy. Finally, they lived together in the mansion sold by the boss due to debt. The bickering and bickering still kept happening. The two people with very different styles bickered all day long, triggering a humorous and funny story.
In the play, Huang Zihua plays Yu Letian, also known as Ah Lok, who grew up in the grassroots class and is a man of the market. He is full of wine and wealth. He is confused and tricky. In fact, he is a micro-observer, has a sense of justice, and has his own opinions. Although he is full of flowers on his lips on weekdays, his attitude towards love is firm and persistent. Started by the messenger, because he was naturally intelligent, he quickly rose to the position of master, but his work style and wisdom are different, so there were many jokes.
Interestingly, Huang Zihua in "Love of Men and Women" is a lawyer in the law firm, and now in "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer", Huang Zihua has finally become a barrister himself. In terms of personality, Lin Liangshui in "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" is also very similar to Yu Letian in "Love of Men and Women" – lazy and unreliable on the surface, but very righteous in the bones. Both characters found Huang Zihua, which has to be said to be a kind of fate.
In 2013, Huang Zihua starred in the Hong Kong drama "My Lady Sheng", which was broadcast. The drama tells the story of Xiang Guangnan, who was named the "Cult Master". With his unique method, he brought out the advantages of the "Sheng Girl" who had no chance of falling in love, and was praised as the "Savior of the Sheng Girl".
Huang Zihua plays "Cult Master" Xiangguangnan in the play. He goes his own way, is careless, speaks tactfully and is funny, and sometimes acerbic. But he is kind-natured and indifferent on the surface, but in fact he often helps others secretly.
"My Lady" won Huang Zihua the Best Actor Award at the Thousand Star Awards Ceremony, which was the first time Huang Zihua had won an award in the industry after years in the industry. But even he thought he would win the award, so he didn’t even go to the award ceremony. When Zheng Yuling called to inform him of the award, he asked in astonishment: "How many vision gods are there?"
As an actor, Huang Zihua is not only good at funny and slick roles, but also handy in formal dramas. In early 2004, he came to the mainland to star in "Extraordinary Citizen", a historical drama about the last emperor Pu Yi. In the play, he played Pu Yi, Jiang Wenli, Qin Hailu and other mainland actors, and he did not violate the rules.
"Extraordinary Citizen" tells the story of different emotional entanglements and fates between Puyi and five women in the early years of the Republic of China, showing the unknown side of Puyi from an emperor to an ordinary citizen. In the play, Huang Zihua successfully performed different aspects of Puyi as an emperor, puppet and citizen.
"I Still Think You’re the Best" became popular in both places
In the field of film, Huang Zihua is a bit of a late bloomer. Although he starred in many classic Hong Kong films in his early years, many of them appeared as supporting roles. Audiences recognize plays but not people.
As a creator with ideas, Huang Zihua has also tried to direct and act. For example, "A Mosquito Chicken Bodyguard" and "What Generation of Grandmasters" and other works. Some of these films have good box office, while others have less than ideal box office. For example, "A Mosquito Chicken Bodyguard" only 118,000 Hong Kong dollars at the box office, and another comedy "Life is Happy" directed by Huang Zihua. Even the Hong Kong box office is only 51,000 Hong Kong dollars. Huang Zihua sometimes mocks himself as "box office poison".
In addition, just by looking at the title of the film, you can see that most of these works carry a strong Cantonese imprint, so most of them are not well known to mainland audiences.
The work that really introduced Huang Zihua to mainland audiences was last year’s "Still Think You’re the Best". The film became a hit in Hong Kong and the mainland, and it won hundreds of millions of box office at a cost of several million. Mainland audiences finally saw the possibility of Hong Kong films beyond the familiar faces of Koo Tianle, Andy Lau, Guo Fucheng and others.
The release of "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" may be another test of Huang Zihua’s mainland audience. If "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" is also recognized by the mainland market, Huang Zihua may have to create a miracle of 60 + becoming popular.
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