Long Gang

Long Gang

Long Gang (1934-2014.09.03), formerly known as l ó ngqi á NY à o, is a Hong Kong film director. Born in Hong Kong in 1934. He died in New York in September 2014.

His masterpieces are heroes, flying girl, call girl and so on. Bring changes to Hong Kong films.

Life figures

In 1986, the story line of John Woo's "the true colors of a hero" came from the film of the same name directed by Long Gang in 1967. In August, the film archive selected 12 films under the title of "time and tide - the variation of movies in the 1970s". Among them, "Call Girl" was directed by Long Gang, a ghost talent who "plays well and directs well", which was controversial by the public at that time.

Long Gang, born in Hong Kong in 1934, is a native of Anhui Province, formerly known as long Qianyao. Later, when the Japanese invaded China, the Longgang family took refuge in Xue juexian troupe. He studied in a Catholic school. During his study, he was quite absorbed in drama and movies, and performed stage plays in school. His father had planned to let him learn art and inherit his father's clothes, but he was not interested in Cantonese opera, which disappointed his parents.

Staff of foreign bank

After graduating from high school, he worked as a clerk in a foreign business. He still felt that he had never met before. Soon he got the help of his friends and went to work in a stock company. At that time, the stock market was not booming, but Long Gang worked here with a monthly income of more than 1000 yuan, better than ordinary white-collar clerks. But a chance changed his life.

In 1957, Long Gang met the actress Ma Xiaoying in church and was recommended to the Cantonese film title director Zhou Shilu. After a long conversation, Zhou Shilu knew that Long Gang had the desire to work in film, so he introduced him to Shao's film company to follow him to learn how to make films, and changed his name to Long Gang.

The Shaw period

Zhou Shilu joined Shao's training class as soon as he didn't need to apply for the examination. He acted as an assistant director at the same time, including drama, recording, editing, screenwriting, photography and production. In a short period of time, he learned how to make movies.

He joined Shaw in 1957, signed a five-year contract, and made a lot of films. His first performance was "the hotel murder case". He acted as a villain. In addition to performing, he also acted as assistant director and screenwriter in more than 10 films. Long is determined to make progress, not to be an actor. Although he learned a lot from Zhou Shilu, he had no chance to develop.

Join Guangyi

In 1962, when his appointment with Shao was over, he joined Guangyi company. In Guangyi, he reduced his performance and concentrated on being Qin Jian's assistant director. For the first time, Qin Jian made the Mandarin film grand circus. Long gangzhe, as the deputy director, helped him a lot and made Qin Jian look at him with new eyes.

In 1966, Qin Jian felt that Long Gang was able to take charge of his own business, so he arranged for him to direct in the new art company, a satellite company of Guangyi. That film was "broadcasting Prince", which was a blockbuster film for Long Gang when he was first in charge. Broadcast prince, starring Xie Xian, Chen Qisong, Eve (formerly Ma Jinling) and Wang Wei, is written by Long Gang and reviewed by Qin Jian. It is of practical significance. The revenue from the first round of the premiere is 300000 yuan, which is a remarkable record, and Long Gang's position as a director has been firmly established.

The true colors of Heroes

Chu Yuan was also Qin Jian's Apprentice. He preferred literary love movies and seldom touched social problems. On the contrary, Long Gang is willing to improve and innovate Cantonese films. After the broadcast prince, in 1967, the hero was made with the theme of prison release, which was not involved in the love between men and women. At that time, it was a bold innovation, but the box office revenue was as high as 400000 yuan! Today, this film is regarded as one of the representative works of Hong Kong films. Twenty years later, John Woo remade it and created a trend of gangster hero films.

Later, Long Gang filmed "the window" invested by Xie Xian in 1968. It was a colorful wide screen art film starring Xie Xian and Xiao Fangfang, with a revenue of 440000 yuan. This is a film that Xiao Fangfang has mentioned in many interviews. She said that she knew how to act at this time.

Flying girl

Long Gang's first film directed for ronghua is the true story of the flying girl. He co wrote it with Jin Bingxing and Lin Niantong, starring Xiao Fangfang, Xue Jiayan and Shen Dianxia. This is the first film to reveal the problems of girls on the edge of society. It has set a record of 850000 yuan for Cantonese films, making many Mandarin films behind.

In 1969, he mobilized 20 or 30 Cantonese actors including Zeng Jiang, Xue Jiayan, Dina, Zhu Jiang, Hu Feng and Zhang Yingcai to perform plague, but it was a disaster. The film describes the plague, the death of patients, Hong Kong has become an epidemic port. Some people rush to buy food while others take advantage of the opportunity to make huge profits. The airport was closed, the factories were closed, and the medical department had to send the sick to the concentration camp. Although the film is about plague, some people think it alludes to the left-wing uprising in 1967. The film was banned by the electronic censorship department. Long Gang forced the film to be cut out, changed the script and remake, and finally changed its name to "yesterday, today and tomorrow". However, the box office revenue was only 130000 yuan, which was a heavy blow to Long Gang.

At this time, Long Gang met the novelist Meng Jun. Meng Jun, formerly known as Feng Wanyi, wrote many romantic novels in Guangzhou in the past. Later, she came to Hong Kong and founded the "under the heaven" weekly. Her audience was mainly young men and women. At that time, she was very popular. Long Gang appreciated her talent and invited her to be a screenwriter. Meng Jun wrote two plays, last night's dream and Peishi. Long Gang didn't want to deal with social problems for the time being, so he followed Meng Jun's advice and made two literary films first.

Call girl

But Long Gang refused to bury his head in the sand. He decided to shoot Meng Jun's original work and screenwriter, the call girl, with prostitutes as the theme. The prostitutes played by Tianni, Jinfei, dingpei, Chen manling and Li Linlin are prostitutes for different reasons. The theme is extremely sharp and social. The film was well received and won the top three box office awards of the year and the best director award of the 19th Asian Film fair.

In 1974, Long Gang made the more controversial Hiroshima 28, which is the only Hong Kong film with anti nuclear and primary explosive themes. From the perspective of Xiao Fangfang's Chinese Japanese hybrid, the film appeals to the world to pay attention to the fate of the survivors of the primary explosion and oppose the nuclear race of the superpower. The film attracted a lot of criticism. Some people even pointed out that Long Gang was a "traitor" when he spoke for the Japanese. This was the second blow he had to face, which stopped him from filming for a year.

Commercial film

In 1976, he made "she" and "ha ha ha Xiao", two films with strong commercial flavor. In 1977, he directed the art film "Persian sunset" starring Zhang Aijia and Deng Guangrong, and then he left the film circle and moved to the United States. He returned to his old stock business and only occasionally became a guest star.

He once told reporters: he made fewer films, so he should focus on quality and pay great attention to the theme of the script. Without this principle, how can he guide the audience to a healthy way? He also said that he was most afraid of the world's decline. Therefore, in his 30 years as a filmmaker, he has only made more than 50 films and directed only 12. What he thinks is most memorable is that he worked as assistant director for Qin Jian's grand circus.

Death

On September 2, 2014, according to Hong Kong media reports, Long Gang, a famous Hong Kong director who directed the 1967 version of "the true colors of heroes", died of illness at his home in Staten Island, New York, this morning. He was 79 years old.

personal works

Directing works

Prince of broadcasting (1966)

Heroes (1967)

Windows (1968)

Flying girl (1969)

Yesterday, tomorrow (1970)

In my dream last night (1971)

Shi Pei (1972)

Call girl (1973)

Hiroshima 28 (1974)

Hahaha (1976)

She (1976)

Persian sunset (1977)

Participating works

1958: the love murder in the hotel, lady of Pengmen and prodigal son's return

1959 "Youth Music", "beautiful corpse case", "Besieged heavily", "bride crossing the port", "fragrance of Durian"

In 1960, Yu Nu tracking, the murderer died, infatuated knot (Part I), infatuated knot (Part II), first love and a night of terror

1961 "blood sprinkling on Heilong Street", "youth fever", "prodigy chasing murderer"

"999 strange corpse case" and "the shadow of Qionglou" in 1962

In 1963, Yuan Yang, gratitude and resentment

1964 grand circus * (Assistant Producer, associate director), "tracking"

1965 "muddleheaded female detective" (executive producer and deputy director), "sword and double Orchids" and "eight killers"

"Broadcast Prince" (screenwriter, director), "legacy of one million", "detective's wisdom to break the case of Yan's corpse", "ghost in the middle of the night"

In 1967, he was a hero (also a screenwriter and director), "blue nightclub" and "the secret of beauty"

1968 "window" (also writer and director), "winter love" and "Prodigal Son and beauty"

"Flying girl" in 1969 (co editor and director)

Yesterday, today, tomorrow, 1970

Last night in my dream, 1971

"Peishi" (co editor and director), 1972

Call girl, 1973 (co editor, director and editor)

Hiroshima 28, 1974 (co editor, director and editor)

1976 "she" (director, editing), "ha ha ha" (co editor, director, editing)

The Persian sunset, 1977

Chinese PinYin : Long Gang