On February 27, the famous Hong Kong movie star Wu Mengda passed away at the age of 70 due to ineffective treatment for liver cancer.
On March 1, "Bay Area Filmmakers Talk About Patriotism – Mr. Wu Mengda’s Work Seminar and Memorial" was held in Guangzhou, and people from the entertainment industry in the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area jointly missed "Uncle Da". It is planned that the funeral will be held in the underground salute hall of Hung Hom World Funeral Home on March 7, and the funeral will be held with a Christian ceremony the next day.
Zhou Xingchi, Wu Mengda’s friend for many years, once again became the focus of public attention, and immediately responded, "I have just learned this news. Although I have been paying attention to Wu Mengda’s condition during this time, I will be mentally prepared, but I am still very sad and reluctant. Wu Mengda’s illness came and went quickly. He is my partner and old friend for so many years, and now I can’t accept it."
In addition, many star friends such as Andy Lau, Li Lizhi, Ren Dahua, Shi Xiaolong, Wang Jing, Zhu Yin, Zhang Min, and Wang Zuxian, who have cooperated with Wu Mengda, have sent messages to mourn, and Wu Mengda’s old owner, the TV station, has broadcast a one-hour special "The Unparalleled Performing Arts Master Will Always Miss Wu Mengda" to show his memory.
Previously, on the 22nd of this month, Tian Qiwen revealed in an interview that Wu Mengda discovered that he was suffering from liver cancer at the end of 2020 and recently completed surgery and entered the chemotherapy stage.
Since 2014, Wu Mengda has been misreported to have passed away many times. At that time, he was in the hospital for emergency treatment due to heart failure caused by a virus infection, and he once lost 15 kilograms due to illness.
In 2017, Wu Mengda, whose physical condition was already not optimistic,Insist on participating in the filming and publicity of "The Wandering Earth" with illness.At the filming scene of the film, Wu Mengda, who played Grandpa Han Ziang, had to wear a dozen catties of mecha, and the scenes of hanging pressure were even more difficult. Almost every scene required a large gulp of oxygen.
In the past 50 years, Wu Mengda has participated in nearly 300 film and television works in his life, and has starred in 10 works within the second time, with a related box office of more than 5 billionBut what is even more fresh in every audience’s memory is that Wu Mengda strives to make every effort in each work,"I dare not disappoint the audience’s expectations."
Legends rise and fall,Create the self-cultivation of an actor
Born in 1952 in Xiamen City, Fujian Province, Wu moved to Hong Kong with his parents at the age of 7. In 1973, Wu Mengda began to study acting at the third stage of the Hong Kong Radio Television Artist Training Course, and two years later, he officially debuted and started his acting career.
Since childhood, Wu Mengda, who dreamed of appearing on the screen one day "should be very handsome", met Zhou Yun-fat, Du Qifeng and Lin Lingdong in the artist training class. Wu Mengda, who had always been among the best at that time, officially joined the industry after graduation, and started from the dragon set according to the rules of the newcomer entertainer at that time.
In 1979, Wu Mengda gradually grew up in the grinding career of the dragon set, and with the role of "Hu Tiehua" in "The Legend of Chu Liuxiang", he gained high popularity and fame. Wu Mengda later recalled, "Even as soon as I got off the bus at the door of the hotel, there were a large number of female fans waiting for autographs."
However, Wu Mengda, who suddenly tasted the taste of fame and fortune, was once addicted to bars and casinos, drinking, playing cards and picking up girls for fun all day long, and owed 300,000 Hong Kong dollars in gambling debts the next year, becoming a "mud that cannot be supported" in the eyes of friends and colleagues, and facing a snow that has no play to accept.
At that time, Wu Mengda, who even considered suicide and career change, was determined to pay off his debts through hard work. From 1981 to 1985, he refocused on acting and constantly corrected himself. Just like the plot in "King of Comedy", Wu Mengda recounted reading Stanislavsky’s "Self-Cultivation of Actors" countless times, which provided a solid foundation and accumulated material for future performances.
The turnaround came from his old friend Johnnie To’s "Tianruoqing", in which Wu Mengda partnered with Andy Lau and played the sidekick "Taibao". Wu Mengda portrayed this gangster role at the bottom of society as "like a dog" through actions such as smoking cigarettes, hunchbacks, and details such as snobbery and flattery.This screen classic role made Wu Mengda popular in one fell swoop and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Since then, film appointments have continued and the pay has been considerable.
And to the post-70s and post-80s who shed many tears "Ye Qingwu","Uncle Da" Wu Mengda is often linked to "Xingzai" Zhou Xingchi through the "nonsensical head" label.
In 1989, Wu Mengda and the newly debuted Zhou Xingchi first collaborated on comedies such as the TV series "Hero of the World" and "He Came from the Jianghu". The two worked together in a tacit understanding and co-created the early nonsense-style videos. It was also from then on that the two developed the habit of temporarily chatting about classic passages in front of the camera.
The off-the-beaten-path comedy was so popular that it caught the attention of the film market. In 1990, Wu Siyuan invited the two to star in "Gambling with God," a low-cost defeat of Jackie Chan and Hui Guanwen’s films, setting a Hong Kong box office record of more than 40 million Hong Kong dollars.
Since then, Wu Mengda and Zhou Xingchi have successively cooperated for 12 years, such as "Dragon and Phoenix Teahouse", "Truant Dragon", "Lu Ding Ji", "Truant Dragon 2", "King of Destruction", "Variety Star Lord", "God of Cookery", "Shaolin Football", etcMore than 20 film worksAmong them, in 2001 "Shaolin Football" broke the record again with a box office of more than 60 million Hong Kong dollars
And this film history story ended in the 2001 film "Shaolin Football".This is the last collaboration between the golden couple of nonsensical comedies.It is worth mentioning that this film has won seven Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor, making it a swan song of the times.
The end of the legend,Farewell to the era of golden supporting roles in Hong Kong films
For many post-70s and post-80s who shed tears "Ye Qingwu", Wu Mengda’s death was also a reminder to some extent.With the decline of the Hong Kong film market and the aging of a generation of Hong Kong filmmakers, the greatest golden supporting role era of Hong Kong films is coming to an end.
Many of the golden supporting characters in the classic Hong Kong film "Memory Kill" are actually in the awkward situation of having no drama to shoot, and have not seen the audience on the big screen for many years.For example, Wu Mengda’s friend Tian Qiwen, who accompanied him all the time when he was seriously ill, played the corpse group performance of "Golden Bell Cover Iron Shirt" in "Shaolin Football" and "King of Comedy" in "Pain, but I am an actor"; Luo Jiaying, who is deeply bound to "only you", the Tang monk who interpreted and deconstructed the classic in "Journey to the West"; Yuan Qiongdan, who often plays the stupid and crazy old Dan, is also the exaggerated and coquettish pomegranate sister in "Tang Bohu Dot Qiuxiang" in Washington; Huang Yifei, who often shows the image of a small citizen or corrupt officials, has won the best supporting actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Bauhinia Award for his role as the big brother who can iron head in "Shaolin Football".
In addition to Chow’s comedies, a number of outstanding supporting villains have emerged in the vast blue ocean of Hong Kong movies with "action, comedy and gangsters" as the primary colors in their heyday. Among them, Lee Shau-kee, Ho Ka-koo, Cheng Kui-an and Huang Guangliang, who have starred in movies such as "Ancient and Dangerous Boys" and "Prison" and are called "the four villains of Hong Kong movies", are the most well-known to the audience.
In addition to Huang Guangliang, who participated in films such as "Prison Situation", "Lame Hao", "Top Ten Torture in the Qing Dynasty" and "Happy Events at Home", the other three have unfortunately passed away. "Big Silly" Cheng Kui’an, who often gave the audience a fleshy face and a fierce first impression, was good at playing villains such as the boss of the rivers and lakes, and died in 2009; Ho Jiaju, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 7th Hong Kong Film Awards for his role as "Big Mi" in "Prison", died in 2015 in a bleak evening, leaving only a few hundred Hong Kong dollars in a few bank passbooks as an inheritance; Lee Shau-kee, who played the flesh and blood and convincing "Ji Ge" in "Ancient Confused Boy", died in 2019 in the last few years of his life, without any financial income, relying solely on the help of his brothers when he was young.
In addition, Lan Jieying, who has gone from a generation of movie queens to crazy and crazy, is also very sighing. She is the sexy and charming Spring Thirteen Niang in "Journey to the West" and the Lotus Fairy in "The Right Son". But this Muse, who became famous young at the age of 20 and is famous for "beautiful Wutai Mountain", died quietly at home in November 2018 at the age of 55 after several failed relationships.
Perhaps in the eyes of many people, most supporting characters seem to be playing a certain kind of person, funny or ruthless on the screen for a lifetime. "Every character has its own unique characteristics, and there is no distinction between high and low stories." Even if you play a supporting role with a small number of roles,Wu Mengda also did not waste every frame of footage, using his own way to make the characters look as good as possible, and tried his best to show "the story behind each character".
Wu Mengda, who is happy and good at interpreting the life of a hundred flavors, turned his "acting sincerity" into every small character with their own life. These voices and images that will not fade, using time as evidence, recorded the traces of such an uncrowned "King of Comedy".
