Special feature of 1905 film network For mainland audience fans, it is undoubtedly another opportunity to satisfy their feelings to really enter the cinema after a lapse of 28 years.
In the past 28 years, no matter Wong Kar-wai’s style, a series of classic movie lines, the excellent acting skills of the actors, the excellent cooperation of the music editing of photography art and even the memory of his brother Leslie Cheung, they are all repeated in the audience’s repeated appreciation and taste of the film.
Until today, its classic status has long been unshakable.
But in addition, what mysteries have been left to the audience by The True Story of Teddy Boy in the past 28 years, or what "unforgettable" memories have been left to the main creator, so here we might as well come one by one:
Where does "I don’t understand" come from?
Today, The True Story of Teddy Boy is recognized as a Chinese film classic, but in that year, it was a "mysterious" work that once made the whole film circle nervous. Let’s see what Wong Kar-wai’s "old enemy" Jing Wong said — —
Everyone is very nervous and constantly wants to know how the True Story of Teddy Boy is made, but everyone comes back with a different version. Even the camera crew who went to the Philippines at last can’t tell what he (Wong Kar-wai) took. It’s really mysterious, except that it overspent terribly … I heard that even my boss Deng Guangrong had never seen the whole movie before the first midnight show, and my boss Xiang Huasheng. But after the midnight show, the mystery remains unsolved, and everyone still doesn’t know the plot, because no one can understand it!
From this moment on, "I can’t understand" has officially become one of Wong Kar-wai’s film symbols in the past 28 years. After all, it was "given" to him by peers and audiences.
But in the past 28 years, this has never prevented "The True Story of Teddy Boy" from becoming a classic in the history of fame!
"Taiwan version" has another mystery?
When the film was released in Taiwan, there was another version. The main changes were concentrated in the last ten minutes. The plot content was basically the same, but the editing changed slightly and some fragments were added.
For example, Leslie Cheung and Andy Lau escaped from the Filipinos, and the Hong Kong version only fled to the roof of two people, while the Taiwan version had two more people jumping off the train:
Two people on the train dialogue, Hong Kong version from Leslie Cheung said "people will die every minute" dialogue, into his positive and negative shots with Andy Lau:
The stage version becomes a long shot of more than 1 minute:
At the back of the jungle empty mirror, Leslie Cheung’s voiceover monologue immediately appeared in the Hong Kong version, but it didn’t appear until the empty mirror was put in the Taiwan version for 30 seconds:
Next, the Hong Kong version is a long shot of Andy Lau, and Leslie Cheung is full of voiceovers. Finally, it is a shot that shows "Xu Zi died":
In the Taiwan version, Andy Lau’s shot becomes the middle shot, followed by Leslie Cheung’s long shot, and Andy Lau is full of voice-over. The Hong Kong version of "Xu Zi dies", while the Taiwan version becomes a dialogue between two people:
The Taiwanese version cut this section and turned it into a picture of two people. Xu Zi is still not dead, and the classic soundtrack is gone, and even the final train vision is different:
Then Carina Lau came to the Philippines, and the Hong Kong version showed her in the room, "inquiring about a person" with the landlord, apparently for Leslie Cheung:
Taiwan version is that she came to the hotel lobby to ask if there is a room, and she also met a girl who had previously accosted Andy Lau:
In a word, there is no essential change in the two editions of Hong Kong and Taiwan, but it reveals the secret of "One Scene and Two Faces" in The True Story of Teddy Boy.
The mystery of Hua zai’s identity
In all the exposed versions, there is no doubt that Andy Lau’s role in The True Story of Teddy Boy is a policeman, but in a trailer, there is a clip of him dressed as a "gangster" smoking and walking through the Kowloon walled city with a knife, which adds to the testimony that he originally played Teddy Boy — — "Huazai is a man from the city village. He was photographed gambling in a big stall. There was a woman wearing only bra underwear, dancing around with a boa constrictor, and he was scraping against the wall with a knife … …”
Later, when Liu Zhenwei filmed Wong Kar-wai’s useless story as Forever, the essence also continued Andy Lau’s "punk" style:
Where is Tony Leung Chiu Wai?
One version of The True Story of Teddy Boy was shown at the beginning, but it was put at the end of the film.
But before that, it almost didn’t fit into the feature film. The reason was that after Wong Kar-wai finished filming, he thought that the role of Tony Leung Chiu Wai was headless and uncapped, so he planned to use this scene as a propaganda picture. But Tan Jiaming, who was in charge of editing, said "put it directly at the end of the play" and specially found a piece of music to match it. Wong Kar-wai shouted "Good Right" to make this classic public.
Regrettably, Tony Leung Chiu Wai will have more emotional scenes with Maggie Cheung in the next episode, especially "bending in a very narrow and cramped space with few words. The two people looked at each other lazily and handed cups. The tension was very good."
But I didn’t expect that Tony Leung Chiu Wai spent three months filming in the city village before and after this story, but it was useless in the end, and the "tension" between him and Maggie Cheung didn’t last until after all, but at that time he was not Zhou Mu Yun, and she was not Su Lizhen when she was young.
Disappeared "sister"
In Wong Kar-wai’s films, characters have been "disappeared" more than once.
Such as Joey Wong, Guan Shuyi, Sun Jiajun, Roy Cheung, etc. Even if the scenes did not all disappear, they all reached the degree of "semi-disappearance". Except for Tony Leung Chiu Wai’s repeated three-month play, it basically disappeared, and later Kimura Takuya and Song Hye Kyo were also doomed. …
However, many people may not know that The True Story of Teddy Boy also has a completely disappeared role, that is, Margaret Lee Din Long, who plays Tony Leung Chiu Wai’s sister, seems to have a quiet reputation and has a great foundation — — Daughter of the great director Li Hanxiang.
According to Tony Leung Chiu Wai, the role itself is a prostitute. When my brother was young, he tricked him into working in a big casino, which made him a gambler. So if all of them were not deleted, it should be another wonderful performance.
Incidentally, it was the script written by Wong Kar-wai that Margaret Lee Din Long nominated for the Academy Award for the first time.
The midnight show of "terror"
In the past, Hong Kong films often had a premiere around 11 pm. After the main creator appeared, the audience would enter the cinema before 12 pm, or before the film was officially released, a group of audiences were randomly invited to the cinema at 12 pm one day (the specific title will not be disclosed in advance) to observe their comments and reactions. This is the legendary "midnight show".
Needless to say, midnight audience, as the first audience, can often accurately predict the future of the film: if the audience cheers and applauds, it will be difficult for the film to sell, otherwise, it will be difficult for the film to sell if it swears, throws popcorn or corn cobs at the screen, scratches the back of the theater, or even greets the director.
Therefore, after the midnight show, the film side often re-cuts the film according to the audience’s reaction, and the result usually makes the "released version" and the "midnight show version" have different degrees of difference.
Seeing this, you can also imagine the midnight scene of The True Story of Teddy Boy: in the middle of the film, the audience stood up and cursed."Who is Wong Kar-wai? !” After the show, the voices of "returning water (refund)", "er (cheating) money" and "I don’t know what to shoot" came and went, and the audience even rushed to spread "Never go to see The True Story of Teddy Boy!"
In the end, the film was released just two weeks after its release, and the cumulative box office was only 9.75 million Hong Kong dollars! Compared with the film investment of HK$ 20 million, it is no wonder that the boss Deng Guangrong went to the hospital for intravenous drip, and it is even rumored that he burned the rest of the film in a rage!
"Ten Million Box Office" Reached?
The first release of "The True Story of Teddy Boy" is less than 10 million box office, and the loss is a foregone conclusion, but is it still less than 10 million?
That may not be true, because the film won five awards in the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards, and then it was re-screened. As a result, it won more than 2 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office under the topic of awards, and with the original 9 million, it finally reached the "10 million box office". It can be seen that even the basic box office income is confirming the difficulty of "The True Story of Teddy Boy".
Ling Chia "collapsed on the spot"?
For many years, many people have always thought that it was the biggest "legacy" that the winner of the Academy Awards didn’t give it to Carina Lau.
Carina Lau is not modest about this, toThe description of "collapse on the spot" revealed the moment: "I was young at that time, and the whole environment pushed me to the point of’ I must have won it’. I also felt that I didn’t guess correctly when I won the prize, and even all the magazines were on my cover. Didn’t I take it? And I went to the Academy Awards, and three of the four nominees (winners) didn’t come, so they must be afraid of me! Not me yet? Even Brigitte Lin and Chow Yun Fat, who presented the awards, thought it must be me, so I just prepared to come up and give my acceptance speech.…In short, after going to heaven, it turned out that it was not me, and that kind of blow was great. "
"If it is now, I will feel so what? What does it matter? But at that time, I really needed an award to give myself an affirmation, so if I gave it to me at that time, I felt that it would have a great impetus to my career. " I don’t want to. This regret actually made Carina Lau wait for 20 years before winning the prize. Only the parties can really understand how much warmth and sadness there are during the period. …
Xueyou is "worried"
Carina Lau was not the only one who was worried about The True Story of Teddy Boy, and Jacky Cheung, who is still not a singer.
At that time, he took a head-up action. After Wong Kar-wai NG for more than 60 times, he only gave him a "forget it", which made him "very uncomfortable. At least tell me which take is ok?" Not only that, in the first scene after the boot, Wong Kar-wai actually sang Jacky Cheung more than 20 times, completely losing face!
In the end, after ashes of time, Jacky Cheung refused to cooperate with Wong Kar-wai.
Behind this, the essence is Jacky Cheung’s feelings about Wong Kar-wai’s "love and hate": in 1988, Jacky Cheung’s singing career was at a low ebb, and only 20,000 albums were sold, and some films he didn’t like were made. Every day, he either drank or played table tennis, and he had to go on stage in other places because of his unsteady drinking. His inner depression was imaginable.
But this year, through his participation, he changed from being criticized for acting to winning the Hong Kong Academy Award for "Best Supporting Actor" — — In other words, Wong Kar-wai found the confidence to be an actor for him!
The following year, by participating in the legendary swordsman, Jacky Cheung won the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor. At this time, his singing career has not recovered. Two acting awards once made him want to focus on movies, so he also had the courage to take on such a big production as Bloody Streets (which finally won him the first nomination for Best Actor) & HELIP; …
At this juncture, WoNG Kar-wai ng and a sentence of "forget it" for more than 60 times, what a cold water for him!
Leslie Cheung "for real"?
"The True Story of Teddy Boy" is actually an "abusive" play, and the fate of every character in the play is very abusive. The actors outside the play are either abused by the director, abused by awards or abused by other actors — — It’s not, brother Leslie Cheung staged a "fisticuffs"!
According to Shanzhi Chen, director of the film, in the scene where my brother beat his adoptive mother’s boyfriend, "The other person is a musician, not a professional actor. Before shooting, leslie specifically told me,’ Please tell him that it’s nothing personal, because it’s not me anymore, it’s the role in the play, and I won’t’ just’ fight formally. He is the person I want to fight.’ Jia Wei let him play freely. He picked up a real hammer and broke the whole washing dish, really hitting the man with a bone fracture! "
After the filming, my brother, who was deeply involved in the play, had to stand aside and the whole person trembled for a long time before he calmed down.
But when he gets back to his state, he immediately cares about his opponent’s injury, and even more bluntly, if the film company fails to pay off the medical expenses, he is willing to bear all — — This is my brother, as always kind.