who is stephen chow?

2024-09-10

"no memory,

there is no empathy.”

"the god of cookery's re-release was a setback. is this going to disenchant stephen chow's comedies?"

——

this was the headline of a news report published by a certain media on september 4th about the re-release of "the god of cookery" on august 31st, which only grossed more than 5 million yuan.

to be honest, i don’t quite understand the re-screening of "the god of cookery". even if it’s for sentimental reasons or “i owe stephen chow a movie ticket”, it’s not a reason to attract audiences.

most people put it bluntly:

"why would i want to watch a movie that i can watch on a website? even if it's a stephen chow movie?"

the public reaction to this incident was not enthusiastic. the official announcement was that 9527 theater would produce two short dramas produced by stephen chow this year, "golden pig and jade leaf" and "a chinese odyssey". the latter will be launched at the end of this year, and the former has exceeded 300 million views on a certain platform, but it has been complained about. interestingly, most of the people who complained are old "star fans".

abuse of sentimentality, self-tribution... these are the points that zhou's short dramas have been criticized for. at the same time, people feel that the classic ip "a chinese odyssey" seems to have been over-consumed.

just like "the god of cookery" has become a very "incorrect" story in the eyes of the post-00s:

ugly girl, licking girl, exaggerated, vulgar.

from today's perspective, zhou's comedies and even most hong kong films at that time had the above phenomenon.

can i say this is a sign of the times?

different from the perception of movies by mainland audiences today, during the heyday of the hong kong film industry, the fastest time from writing a script to filming was less than a month. many of the veteran hong kong stars seen today have almost all starred in some "vulgar" movies. this is easy to understand:

first of all, hong kong artists have a clear positioning of themselves. hong kong is so small that you can meet several artists when you go shopping. they do not have a "professional sacredness" like their mainland counterparts. cantonese people emphasize "making a living in the world", and artists are just one of the professions in "making a living in the world". "citizen culture" is the focus of all hong kong's cultural and entertainment industries.

secondly, during stephen chow's time, the mainland was still in the early stages of reform and opening up, and mainlanders really didn't get to see so many different things. as compatriots of the same language and ethnicity, "one cheng and two zhous" and "the four heavenly kings" brought enough freshness and cultural influence to mainland audiences back then. therefore, it is not surprising that today's audiences have objections to zhou's comedies, and even some old hong kong films.

the perception of the times is different, and the product experience is also different.

finally, the basic fan base of stephen chow's generation of hong kong stars are those born between 1970s and 1990s (excluding those born after 1995). these people are not the main consumer group in the cultural and entertainment market today. they have spending power, but their first choice is definitely not stephen chow and others.

if i were to describe stephen chow and other hong kong stars in one sentence, it might be:

"some people are better kept in your heart than in front of you."

a few years ago, stephen chow visited a famous university in the mainland and chatted with college students about "a chinese odyssey". a female program host once commented that stephen chow was a "lonely old man", even though he was only in his forties that year.

the late 1990s and early 2000s were the peak of stephen chow's popularity in mainland china. college students of that generation liked his affectionate confessions, and the word "nonsense" was drowned in praise. although some older people said that most of his movies were "dirty", this voice could be ignored.

public opinion is always changing. people's evaluation of stephen chow is more emotional than rational. at that time, the mainland film market was not good. feng's new year films came later than stephen chow's comedies. mainlanders still rented videos and dvds mainly from hong kong, taiwan and overseas. in this environment, people were more tolerant of vulgarity. everyone remembered that zhizunbao = stephen chow, so whoever opposed it was an outlier.

it was not until the end of the 2010s that a veteran artist's remark "zhu mao zha gui" not only did not make people dislike "zhi zun bao", but instead pushed stephen chow's works to a new height.

but don’t overlook a key factor:

at that time, people born in the 1970s, 1990s and 1980s were still the mainstream of public opinion and consumption.

it’s hard to say when exactly stephen chow’s reputation began to decline.

was it because of xiang tai's rebuke? was it because of sammo hung and wong jing's backstabbing? or was it because his new king of comedy was a box office failure? anyway, a bunch of people stood by and expressed their dissatisfaction with him, either openly or secretly.

in 2021, wu mengda passed away, stephen chow appeared, and netizens sighed:

"i never thought that goodbye would be forever."

as for the twists and turns between him and stephen chow, others can't see clearly. "stephen chow doesn't know how to respect others" seems to have ushered in a hot discussion with the death of uncle da. someone on a certain social platform interpreted stephen chow's "lack of social skills", thinking that how could a person who rose from a low-level supporting actor to a popular star not be able to understand social skills? the conclusion is that stephen chow only shows "social skills" to those who are "worthy".

during this stage, with the rapid spread of information on the internet and the rise of self-media, the entertainment gossip in "roadside society" focused on "revelations" of past figures and classics. people born after 1995 and 2000 gradually became the main consumers. they have no memory of stephen chow, and their impression of his comedies and even old hong kong films is merely that "they are said to be classics."

it cannot be said how objective this wave of audiences is. it can only be said that the halo of the older generation such as stephen chow has faded in their eyes.

in addition, when this generation grew up, hong kong films had already declined.

this is also an important historical background.

a number of directors such as chen kexin and zhong shaoxiong who were the first to go north to seek cooperation have already focused their creative perspectives on the lives of mainland people. sammo hung, jackie chan, stephen chow and others have come later, and all hong kong films that can be released in the mainland are no longer "pure". in layman's terms, "citizen culture" has disappeared, and the majority of these films have mainland backgrounds.

the last hong kong local story that stephen chow starred in was "king of gamblers" in 2000. since 2001, "shaolin soccer" and "cj7" have all been set in the mainland. "kung fu" is an exception, but it also blurred the boundaries between "mainland" and "hong kong".

after cj7, stephen chow officially transformed himself. in the 2010s, he wrote and directed journey to the west: conquering the demons, the mermaid, and journey to the west: the demons strike back, followed by the sentimental the new king of comedy. his old partner jeffrey lau's a chinese odyssey: part three failed before him...

so stephen chow is not an isolated case. many veteran hong kong stars have played the "sentiment" card since the 2010s, but have generally not been recognized.

times have changed, audiences have evolved, and people in the new era look at the products of the old era from a new perspective.

this is normal.

when the post-80s generation was young, many people liked to do a gesture when expressing their "speechless" or "awkward" states in daily life:

stretch out three fingers upward and slide down your head. this comes from the "cold sweat" of characters in japanese comics, and people often call themselves "little girls..." on social media. these are all old words. things that are no longer popular now have a certain "historical value".

the same is true for stephen chow's movies.

old "star fans" did not have much praise for stephen chow's movies after the new century. most of them thought that he had moved away from the laughter and scolding of small people, and either played deep or high-end. in short, it lacked many of the previous flavors.

new audiences are puzzled by some of stephen chow's past and current works. for example, on a certain social platform, everyone is arguing whether "from beijing with love" is a spoof or a smear. in fact, this is a one-sided view that is out of touch with the era of creation.

you have to know that before 1997, hong kong films' descriptions of the mainland were somewhat difficult to describe. stephen chow at least retained his patriotism. however, when time fast-forwarded to the new century, many hong kong filmmakers were seeking development and breakthroughs. they needed to find works that were based in the mainland market and also needed to satisfy the tastes of mainland audiences.

the journey to the west series and the mermaid are all products of the rapid development of the mainland film industry. as the ace of the lunar new year film, stephen chow is confident that he can continue his artistic life with his own brand.

but playing with emotions is really no longer suitable for the tastes of today's audiences.

for example, when i was watching an old hong kong movie on a certain platform, i saw some netizens complaining that hong kong stars were often "difficult to identify by face". when others laughed at them, someone said:

"we haven't seen what they looked like when they were young. is it surprising that we made a mistake?"

without memory, there is no empathy.

be it "a chinese odyssey" or "the god of cookery", both have experienced tremendous changes in mainland social life, gender relations, and public cognition in the past three decades. it cannot be said that they are outdated, but just as the criticism of the post-00 audience after the re-screening of "the god of cookery", some plots and expressions make the "children" feel nothing.

usually, this is called the "generation gap".

the group of college students who asked stephen chow to read the lines from "a chinese odyssey" are now about to turn 40, and it is unknown what these people are doing, but they are definitely not the mainstream on social platforms.

stephen chow needs to impress a new generation of audiences with new works.

so do others.

when the mermaid was released, there was a topic discussed among the public:

who is the next generation's "king of comedy"?

there is no answer to this question.

among the people on the list, deng chao, dapeng, xu zheng, jia ling, the "shen ma" combination, etc. are still tied in 2024.

therefore, people have to look back at stephen chow's comedy era. before him was sam hui. based on market trends, the hong kong people completed the handover between two generations of comedy kings with a "fighting for the chicken head" scene.

1992 was the year of stephen chow. among the fifteen highest-grossing movies of the year, stephen chow accounted for seven.

who can break this record so far?

1992, 32 years ago.

stephen chow specializes in comedy and is also known as the "king" of comedy.

the core of comedy must be tragedy.

for example, "yin tianchou" in "the king of comedy" is not only a review of stephen chow's life along the way, but also a summary of the lives of countless "dead extras".

stephen chow's early comedies were basically based on small characters. even the helplessness of the "master" in "forbidden city cop" can arouse empathy:

people who are frustrated in the workplace can never escape the pua of their bosses and colleagues. until the moment of the "award ceremony", life is just a play.

it is also rooted in "citizen culture" and uses shit, piss, fart and dirty talk as its "setting poem".

without this kind of colloquialism, "comedy" will not be valid in any story.

one year, stephen chow had the following question and answer session when interacting with the audience (roughly):

"do you still like to watch me beat people up (in the movie kung fu)?" stephen chow asked.

"yes!" the audience shouted.

"i'm old and can't fight anymore. how about letting someone beat me?" said stephen chow.

"okay!" everyone said...

he is a tragic character, so he is the king of comedy.

i understand so much.

perhaps in a few years, younger audiences will no longer know how to express the joys and sorrows of ordinary people, and will no longer know what "there was once a love worth keeping for ten thousand years" means.