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an incomplete history of the film and television works of "dream of red mansions": hong kong tvb was the first to try it in the 1970s

2024-09-01

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many people know that there have been many remakes of jin yong's dramas in recent years, but few people know that there are quite a few movies and tv series based on "dream of red mansions" in both sides of the taiwan strait and hong kong.

the 1987 cctv version is considered by many mainland audiences to be the ceiling of film and television dramas of "dream of red mansions", but in fact, even in the mainland, its classic positioning has changed in the minds of the new generation of audiences.

in hong kong and taiwan, each place has its own classics. "one dai is not as good as another dai" is often the label that the audience sets for other remakes after they have identified their own classics.

the filming of the movie dream of red mansions has a long history, and most of it is based on huangmei opera and other operas. it was not until hong kong tvb in 1975 that it was truly turned into a tv series.

the 1970s was also the period when "dream of the red chamber" was popularly filmed.

tvb tried the first crab, but the crab was not tasty enough. the selection of roles and the design of the plot now seem to be a joke.

the first actor to play baoyu in a chinese tv series was ng wai-kwok. from the 1970s to the mid-1980s, he was a striking young actor in hong kong dramas.

he played the leading male role in "going to tiger mountain again", "the four" and "young empress dowager cixi". he was handsome and popular for quite a while.

later, with the decline of hong kong asia television, he was depressed for many years. the last time he appeared in people's sight was when he became liu xiaoqing's boyfriend, but of course it didn't last too long.

the actress who played daiyu must be tvb's leading actress, liza wang, who was later known as "ajie".

ajie had a dignified appearance when she was young, but when she played lin daiyu, she was already 28 years old, twice the age of lin daiyu in the book. she also did not have a delicate and sentimental temperament, which did not fit the image of daiyu at all. however, she was very popular at that time, and hong kong audiences gave quite good reviews to liza wang's version of lin daiyu.

the actress who played baochai, lu youhui, was also a famous beauty. together with ng wai-kwok, she became the first screen couple created by tvb.

later, she played gan baobao, the girlfriend of prince duan in the 1982 version of "demi-gods and semi-devils", and the female devil li mochou in andy lau's 1983 version of "the return of the condor heroes".

when chow yun-fat just made his debut, he played the role of qi guan jiang yuhan in his first film. he was a bit green. it was not until more than a year later when he starred in the 129-episode family struggle drama "frenzy" that chow yun-fat began to become famous.

tvb's "dream of the red chamber" is classified as a folk unit drama "folk legend series" produced by hong kong wireless television. now netizens' opinion is "just don't treat it as "dream of the red chamber"."

but hong kong audiences don't mind that this is a modified version of "dream of red mansions", which is interpreted into a bloody family feud. it is lively to watch, and wang xifeng has become a complete villain who is determined to defeat lin daiyu. fortunately, there are only 7 episodes.

the craze brought about by tvb's small screen reached its peak around 1977.

this year, a total of 5 "dream of red mansions" movies were released in hong kong, taiwan, and southeast asia! they are "a dream of red mansions", "a new dream of red mansions", "a dream of red mansions", "spring dream of red mansions", and "awakening from dream of red mansions". various characters appeared on the screen, making it very lively.

in fact, shaw brothers, which was the leader of hong kong film industry at that time, had already filmed the popular huangmei opera dream of red mansions in the 1960s. taking advantage of the return of the famous director li hanxiang from taiwan, run run shaw hoped that he would film another version. once shaw brothers made the move, other film companies in hong kong and taiwan followed suit.

li hanxiang's "a dream of red mansions" is naturally the best among them. the props, scenery, and cast all demonstrate the dominance of shaw brothers during the heyday of hong kong film industry.

brigitte lin's cross-dressing baoyu has become the favorite version of baoyu for many movie fans. not only does she look like the real baoyu, but she also portrays him in a way that is both foolish, angry, and crazy.

sylvia chang was originally the first choice for jia baoyu, but later li hanxiang discovered that she was shorter than brigitte lin, so he asked her to play daiyu instead. although her performance cannot be called a classic, it is better than that of liza wang.

nicholas tse's mother deborah played zijuan, and stole the spotlight more than sylvia chang's lin daiyu;

the actress who played baochai was michelle yim, who later became popular in mainland china for her role in "heroes of the east". at that time, she had just become famous for playing huang rong in "the legend of the condor heroes".

the image of baochai is different from what readers have in mind, but the merits outweigh the flaws. overall, the movie is already very outstanding.

especially the performance of brigitte lin, the 23-year-old beauty's first costume film was refreshing. it was not uncommon for a female student to play baoyu in the previous and previous works of "dream of red mansions".

however, li hanxiang's insightful and unique cross-dressing design directly provided ideas for tsui hark's later filming of "swordsman and woman". in the end, brigitte lin's cross-dressing role in tsui hark's "crouching tiger, hidden dragon" became a unique classic in chinese film history.

the singaporean version of "awakening from the dream of the red chamber" is a spoof modern fashion version, in which daiyu finally defeats baochai and snatches away brother bao.

the "dream of red mansions" that taiwan rushed to shoot was unremarkable, and the two erotic films "dream of red mansions" and "spring in red mansions" were also shot just to take advantage of the popularity and grab box office revenue.

it is worth mentioning that mou dunfu, the director of "dream of the red chamber", lost his wife hu yinmeng because of the filming of this movie, and li ao finally got the advantage.

"spring in the red chamber", when leslie cheung, who had just debuted, and huang xingxiu, who was already famous, were deceived by the contract and filmed an erotic version of "dream of the red chamber".

the brother who is in the prime of his youth is really the most suitable match for the handsome and elegant jia baoyu.

huang xingxiu, who later played zhong ling and azhu in "demi-gods and semi-devils" and became famous for her role in "the thirteenth sister", is a famous beauty in ancient costume. she played qingwen in the tvb version of "dream of red mansions" and her performance as lin daiyu in "spring in red mansions" was quite decent.

the film's adapter belongs to the "support dai and oppose chai" faction among the readers of "dream of red mansions".

the images of baochai and her shadow xiren were both spoofed: xue baochai carried lengxiang pills because she had body odor and used the fragrance to cover up her body odor; xiren had the most exposed shots in the film, and was pushed to the foot of the rockery and raped by jia zheng when she first entered the jia mansion.

"jia zheng" played by "uncle shrimp" guan haishan pointed out the implication of cao xueqin's "hypocrisy".

wang xifeng is the most lustful and dissolute person in the mansion, while bao dai has already completed a stable physical relationship. although leslie cheung did not show any scenes and there were no passionate scenes, after his death in 2003, the erotic film he starred in was re-recorded by the film company and made a lot of money.

the dream of red mansions was also very lively on the small screen in 1977.

hong kong atv, which emerged as a dark horse and overshadowed tvb, announced that it would shoot 100 episodes of "dream of red mansions".

later, although only 73 episodes were filmed due to poor ratings, each episode was 55 minutes long, which was unprecedented and unmatched in capacity. in terms of plot, it was the most detailed version, even filming the background stories and characters' inner dramas omitted in the original work. the parts about fairy jinghuan, xiren and qin zhong's lovemaking were also filmed in detail, retaining almost all the plots in the original work.

in addition, among the many film and television works of "dream of red mansions" to date, only the atv version of that year has retained the character of zhen baoyu.

therefore, some netizens said that if you have not read the original novel, watching this drama directly is equivalent to reading the novel.

the preparation of this production of dream of the red chamber took two years and involved an astronomical investment of several million yuan at the time. it was adapted and produced by a dozen screenwriters and directors, and involved the participation of more than seventy film and television elites and three hundred actors. the other work behind the scenes was also enormous.

the costume design is also unique and innovative. famous artists are hired to hand-paint chinese flowers, feathers and other backgrounds, and the cost is also spared no effort to achieve magnificence.

the grand view garden is the main setting of dream of the red chamber. the atv art team first spent a lot of effort to make the model, and then spent hk$120,000 to build a number of pavilions and scenery at the back mountain location, including flower beds and waterside pavilions, curved corridors, stone steps along secluded paths, circular arches, goldfish ponds, etc., which are beautiful and quaint, and of considerable scale. they even went to south korea to shoot the location, capturing the scenery and pavilions full of classical atmosphere there.

hong kong atv is the third television station in hong kong, which was launched in 1975. due to its limited program resources, it focuses on tv dramas.

in just three years, it started filming martial arts and costume dramas such as "the legend of the condor heroes", "the return of the condor heroes", "the deer and the cauldron", "the snow mountain flying fox", "the sword stained with royal blood", "the legend of the white-haired witch", "the sea of ​​clouds and jade bow", "the swordsman", "meteor butterfly sword", "september eagle flies/the golden sword", and "the storm of sui and tang dynasties". it became the first tv station to film martial arts novels based on jin yong/gu long/liang yusheng, and set off a wave of poaching. at that time, atv was full of talented people, and many talented people who later became part of the hong kong entertainment industry lived in atv.

the actor who played baoyu was wu weiguo, who had just switched to atv. the stingy tvb made wu weiguo leave without hesitation, and he used the salary after the job change to buy his first house in his life. he also became the actor who played jia baoyu twice.

mao shunyun, who played lin daiyu, was 17 years old and her petite appearance and temperament were similar to the character in the book, so she received rave reviews from the audience after the series was broadcast.

however, after mao shunyun entered the film industry in the late 1980s, she changed her style to comedy and filmed films such as "the god of cookery" and "descendants of the dragon" with stephen chow.

she is best known to mainland movie fans as leslie cheung’s ex-girlfriend and the only person leslie wanted to marry, but unfortunately things did not go as planned.

michelle yim, who played baochai, was also playing the role for the second time. despite this, michelle yim's version of baochai was never recognized by book fans.

however, later on in mainland china, michelle yim became very popular thanks to hit tv series such as "huo yuanjia" and "go to tiger mountain again".

when atv is filming a drama, it doesn't seem to care too much about whether the actors playing the characters are completely compatible in terms of image and temperament. for example, liang xiaolong played yang kang in "the legend of the condor heroes".

liang xiaolong is a kung fu actor. he has no noble temperament, not like wanyan kang, but more like li yuanba. later, he played the tough guy image of chen zhen, which made him very popular in mainland china.

in the return of the condor heroes, he again played the role of yelu qi, who lacked the gentle and elegant temperament. netizens commented that as soon as he started fighting, it was obvious that he was not on the same level as others, and it seemed that there was no one in the whole play that he could not beat.

to give another example, yang guo in the return of the condor heroes was played by luo lelin and little dragon girl was played by li tongming. these two images made andy lau, born in 1983, and louis koo, born in 1995, completely classics.

but one netizen's comment is quite intriguing: the soundtrack is great, but in 1976, there was still the cultural revolution in mainland china, and hong kong was able to shoot more than 50 episodes of the return of the condor heroes, and it was a color version, which is amazing.

just half a year after the dismal ratings of "dream of red mansions", atv went bankrupt and many of their dramas were shelved by tvb. for example, michelle yim's version of huang rong in "the legend of the condor heroes" has not seen the light of day to this day.

taiwan across the strait was not to be outdone. cts, one of the three major tv stations, also filmed a version of dream of the red chamber in 1978. the original plan was to film 100 episodes, but in the end, only 70 episodes were filmed.

the actress of taiwan's eight o'clock drama cheng xiuying played lin daiyu. it should not be very outstanding, so there is basically no relevant information on the internet, and because it is too old, the footage can no longer be found.

speaking of cts, it has a special fondness for dream of the red chamber. from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, it filmed three editions in total.

in 1983, taiwan's cts produced the second version of the tv series "dream of red mansions", directed by li ying and starring li luling (who played the role of jia baoyu in a cross-dressing role), zhao yongxin, chen qi, li lifeng and others.

this tv series has only 16 episodes and selects several wonderful passages from the original novel, and is considered to be a condensed and essential version.

zhao yongxin, who plays daiyu, is a common actress in qiong yao dramas like qin han and liu xuehua.

she is the first graduate of the guoguang arts school, and the senior sister of s and s. she became famous in the entertainment industry with her image of a "jade girl idol".

in 1996, after ten years of hard work, cts finally produced a version of "dream of the red chamber" that is still highly praised by the famous national taiwan university professor ou lijuan. the 73-episode version is considered the culmination of cts's work.

this version was also called the one with the most beautiful lin daiyu by the audience who watched it.

many viewers and netizens call it the most beautiful version of "lin daiyu" - zhang yuyan, and the ending of the story is much better than the 1987 version of a dream of red mansions!

some netizens said that all the cast members in this version are incredibly good-looking, every maid looks very pretty, and all the characters are dressed in modern styles, giving people a sense of déjà vu of "my fair princess", so it can be regarded as an idol version.

both the cts version of dream of the red chamber and the 1987 cctv version were filmed in shanghai's grand view garden, but the setting feels completely different. the cctv version's setting is more like a northern courtyard house, simple and dignified. because of the lack of money, the props are few and simple, and the jiangnan garden style of the grand view garden is not obvious. the cts version is much more gorgeous.

but for the mainland audiences who regard the 1987 version as their golden rule, the cts version's lighthearted and cheerful atmosphere, like the huangmei opera, and the taiwanese-accented recitation are somewhat difficult for them to accept.

however, the shots and dialogues of the 1996 version of dream of the red chamber are smoother than the 1987 cctv version, which is very good for popularizing it to the general public.

wang shuo once said that the most unbearable thing about the 1987 version was that "the lines were so badly read," which were neither literary nor colloquial.

it is said that the 1987 cctv version took a long time to produce fine results, and the shooting period was several years. in fact, the screenwriter ding yamin of the cts version spent more than three years just on script writing, and the shooting and production took another six or seven years.

the script after the eightieth chapter is indeed the best among all the versions. it is uniquely designed, stretching for thousands of miles and thrilling, and narrates the process of the fall of the jia family and the dispersion of the ladies in detail and completely.

there is no need to elaborate on the 1987 version of "dream of the red chamber".

however, in 1989, beijing film studio produced six films of "dream of red mansions", which chinese people are actually not familiar with.

this masterpiece was directed by xie tieli and zhao yuan, and starred xia jing, tao huimin, fu yiwei, liu xiaoqing, etc. this film brought together a large number of popular stars at the time, and the lineup was quite luxurious.

regardless of what others say, wang fulin himself said that his level was far behind xie tieli.

this is really not modesty.

but the four most frightening words when it comes to film and television are: there are pearls and jades before them.

when xie tieli started filming, the 1987 version had just begun to be broadcast on tv, and the movie was not released until two years later.

the sets and props of the 1989 version of "dream of red mansions" are far superior to those of the 1987 version. even the new year pictures sold at the stalls on ningrong street that flashed by in the camera are authentic qing dynasty antiques, and the actors performing the shows are all mature.

but in terms of casting, the characters of the 1987 version have been deeply rooted in our minds. although tao huimin's daiyu, fu yiwei's baochai, liu xiaoqing's wang xifeng, zhao lirong's liu laolao, and he qing who played in all four great classics, etc., are all good, and the color tones of the film have more classical charm, but preconceived ideas and repeated replays have put the movie version at a disadvantage in all aspects.

and the music is not as good as the 1987 version, which is indeed a "fatal flaw".

moreover, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, chinese films gradually slid to the bottom, while tv dramas ushered in a golden age. more and more people watched tv, and fewer and fewer people watched movies. china's major film studios suffered huge losses.

it was not until five years later that the "profit-sharing system for imported blockbuster films" was implemented, and films like "the fugitive" and "true lies" led to a gradual revival of film as a product in mainland china.

in a word: the 1989 version of "dream of red mansions" was born at the wrong time.

of course, everyone who thinks it is ugly can give a lot of reasons.

the original director of the 2010 new dream of red mansions was hu mei, but she resigned from the position due to a conflict with the investors over the selection of actors. li shaohong was hu mei's classmate.

therefore, when "a dream of red mansions part two" was met with a barrage of negative reviews, some viewers who watched the 1987 version might not have expected that the 2010 version of "a dream of red mansions", which was severely criticized 14 years ago, has already received positive reviews from new viewers who have not watched the 1987 version, and there are quite a few of them.

we really can't equate these viewers with the many new viewers online who think "schindler's list" is a bad movie.

many young audiences today do not understand why the 1983 version of "the legend of the condor heroes" was regarded as a classic. they think the background is so fake, the costumes and props are so poor, and the special effects are so unbearable.

times are changing, and so are people’s aesthetics. audiences who have only watched jet li’s version of “once upon a time in china” cannot imagine how popular kwan tak-hing’s version of “once upon a time in china” was fifty or sixty years ago. it was filmed for more than seventy episodes and became the wong fei-hung in the minds of that generation.

over the past hundred years, chinese film history has produced forty film and television dramas based on the dream of the red chamber, including full-length, condensed, adapted, spoof, opera, romance, and pornographic versions.

some people became famous overnight after filming dream of the red chamber, while others never recovered after filming it; some people accepted criticism calmly, while others could not tolerate even a word of dissatisfaction; some were obviously shoddy but received high ratings, while others were meticulously crafted but lost all their money...

it is true that "the paper is full of nonsense, and the tears are full of sadness".

the criticism of hu mei’s version of a dream of red mansions is still fresh in my ears, and i heard that zheng xiaolong’s version is on the way.

if hu mei could be patient a little longer, perhaps zheng xiaolong would "rescue" her.