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at the end of the movie, andy lau was walking alone in a huge conference room in a cbd office building in beijing.

there is no glory in the future, only loneliness.

author | solzhenitsyn

editor | xiaobai

typesetting | die

on march 15, 2024, the movie "mr. red carpet" was rescheduled for release.

this movie about a hong kong movie star, directed by a mainland director, made andy lau a hot topic both on and off the screen. however, the topic had nothing to do with the box office, but was related to his popularity.

andy lau is a very hardworking artist. he has been active in front of the public for so many years, and has some works almost every year, whether songs or movies. however, mainland audiences who have seen his young appearance may have a common feeling:

gradually, there were fewer people around andy lau.

i am talking about a group of hong kong artists of his generation. except for a few first-line stars like jackie chan, chow yun-fat, and aaron kwok, many others have gradually retired from the entertainment industry. take the actresses who once dated him on the screen, such as brigitte lin, maggie cheung, cherie chung, sharla cheung, joey wong, shu-ching yau, and rosamund kwan. basically, there is little information about them. sometimes they are only reported as entertainment gossip. male artists such as tony leung ka-fai, jacky cheung, and leon lai barely keep working hard. it is roughly the same as the aforementioned jackie chan, chow yun-fat, and aaron kwok.

nowadays, the actors who act with him are either "old guys" of his generation or actors from mainland china.

in addition to this year's "mr. red carpet", andy lau has two other movies. one is "negotiation expert", and his co-star is lau ching wan, also a veteran hong kong actor. the other is "crisis line", and his co-star is zhang zifeng.

in terms of music, only one song "slowly" was released in 2023, and it was a promotional song.

at the beginning of the year, he was elected as the 11th vice chairman of the china film association. the previous person to hold this position was jackie chan.

so today a certain media reported the news headline as follows:

"dangers are everywhere, 63-year-old andy lau, please stop working so hard"

yes, andy lau is 63 years old.

on september 9, he had an accident during his performance at the shenzhen stop of the "today is the day andy lau concert tour":

when he was singing "it's not a sin for a man to cry", the door to the underground passage in the middle of the stage was open. he didn't notice it when he walked over, and as a result, one of his feet missed a mark and he fell on the stage. if his focus had been a little off, he would have fallen several meters off the stage, with disastrous consequences.

in the live video, as the crowd exclaimed, andy lau obviously slowed down for a moment, then stood up with a smile and continued singing.

then……

the media and fans collectively paid attention to this wave, and everyone said:

andy lau, you work so hard.

01

the question "is andy lau really capable?" proves that an era is gradually fading away.

in this era, andy lau once had titles such as "five tigers of tvb", "four heavenly kings", and "the most hardworking artist". his career path can be retrieved by looking at the titles.

a digression:

there are not many artists who can still hold concerts in hong kong and gather fans, and even fewer who can attract the attention of mainland media.

the earliest singing gods include sam hui, alan tam, and then andy lau. they are all over 60 years old. andy lau is the youngest and the only singer who can still maintain popularity in both sides of the taiwan strait and hong kong and macau.

the new generation of hong kong singers, such as jiang tao and zhang tianfu, are far inferior to their predecessors. some young actors are basically only well-known in the cantonese-speaking area. chinese music itself is gradually being bundled with streaming media as a vassal product, and the production standards of hong kong films and dramas have long been far behind the mainland film and television industry. the hong kong market, with only a few million in size, cannot drive the entertainment industry like it did in the 1960s and 1980s. therefore, many hong kong stars have moved to the mainland around 1997 and gradually integrated with the mainland cultural industry.

among them, the best performers are a few artists such as andy lau.

although everyone knows that whoever can gain a foothold in the mainland with a population of more than one billion can continue to maintain his artistic image in the past few years, there are still many artists who cannot fully understand the cultural environment of the mainland. some people even choose to retire or only appear in some works, such as jacky cheung, the singing god after sam hui.

when the “four heavenly kings” were at their most popular in the early 1990s, some media outlets commented that they were worried that “they would become so popular that they would affect the development of newcomers”…

now it seems that i was worrying too much.

talented people emerge in every generation. at the beginning of this century, andy lau deliberately sat at the back at an award ceremony and pushed richie jen to the front for the media to take pictures.

this is a powerful testimony to his personal character.

you have to know that in the world of fame and fortune, it is not uncommon for seniors to suppress juniors. the mainland music scene was turned upside down because of a man named dao lang. however, this is just "small talk" and i will not go into details.

the most important reason why andy lau, who was born in the market, has come this far is that he is popular. many fans and passers-by will talk about his friendliness, such as "on a certain day of a certain year, i met andy lau in a certain place, and i interacted with him because of something." andy lau is so and so...

no one said he was a bad person.

the most pertinent comment on andy lau from someone on the internet is:

“if a person can pretend to be a gentleman all his life, then he is a gentleman.”

02

whether in hong kong, taiwan or the mainland, i believe most artists will be jealous of andy lau. because from the late 1980s to now, as long as andy lau releases a new song, there will definitely be fans who buy it for collection.

is andy lau a perfect person?

of course not.

there is no perfect person in the world.

but he must be a perfect idol——

when i was in primary school, people praised him. then in middle school, college, and work. from youth to middle age, several generations have passed, and the evaluation of him is still more praised than criticized. even if a movie does not do well at the box office, most people sympathize with andy lau more than laugh at him.

it's a miracle.

take the accident at the performance on september 9th for example:

when andy lau stumbled during a concert, fans and passersby would immediately condemn the negligence of the concert staff and then worry about andy lau's health. this is not the first time he has made people worried. in july this year, he apologized to the audience for his dangerous actions on the high platform at a concert in shanghai. don't say that he is 63 years old. even a 23-year-old would probably have trembling calves after the performance.

it is sympathetic that andy lau, who is still alive and kicking, fell on the stage. i accept this kind of "fan circle" culture. he has been in the entertainment industry for decades, and i have never heard of any scandals about him. the most common word is "hardworking".

when he acted in his 100th movie, "ah hu", the media witnessed his acting legend. that year was the millennium, 24 years ago, and it was also the last peak period of hong kong's film and music scene.

since the 2010s, there have been fewer and fewer hong kong artists running side by side with andy lau in the mainland, and their age has been getting older. until the 2020s, there were finally sayings that "the golden horse award winner is too old" and "there is a gap in hong kong artists."

at that time, hong kong people hoped that he would be the chief executive, and he also played the chief executive in the movie "golden rooster 2". if "chief executive liu" is really elected, he may be the most handsome chief executive in history.

who can maintain such a good figure in their sixties? who can be handsome for half a lifetime and still have a large group of fans across all age groups?

objectively speaking, andy lau's acting skills have always been controversial, but his "character" has overshadowed all the discussions. it's not because he is the best artist, but in the new era, people need an idol with good character:

it is the generally recognized one, not the one customized by the "fan circle".

therefore, "artistic ethics" is really important.

03

"andy lau was so handsome when he was young?!"

a viewer once said while watching "summer lucky stars" that andy lau was just a supporting role in that movie.

the post-90s generation of audiences have lost their memory of king andy lau’s appearance when he was young, and lack the feeling of witnessing history in the hong kong music and film industry.

but one era seems to still have its aftertaste, and the next new era has arrived.

the biggest feeling i have about "mr. red carpet" is that king liu is almost playing "himself"——

an artist who was once loved by thousands of boys and girls and is now entering his twilight years.

i don't have the heart to use the word "outdated" to describe his situation, because he is still respected, people buy his songs, and people make movies with him. he can still perform difficult moves in concerts and then get up and continue singing immediately after falling down.

i call this behavior "professional ethics."

what's more, he is already 63 years old.

the old hong kong stars of that generation all had bad backgrounds. many of them had to endure hardships since childhood. after becoming famous artists, they were also welcomed. most of them were very approachable, without the style of "old artists" or the burden of "idols". it's just that luck has its ups and downs. when they come to the mainland to develop, they still have to listen to the wind and identify their position and find their own position.

but there is one thing:

whether it is filming or other work, i am basically very serious.

this is a style inherited from that era.

after all, hong kong is so small, and it would be hard to survive if you have a bad reputation.

the mainland market is larger, and the new media era will not give artists too many opportunities to indulge themselves.

at the age of 63, andy lau still has to maintain his love for his fans and his passion for his career, while he is facing a more cruel reality:

the development space for hong kong stars in the mainland is becoming increasingly narrow. the new generation cannot break through the market barriers and the older generation is gradually dying out.

he is one of the few hong kong artists who is still working hard to maintain his image.

so netizens could only say half-jokingly and half-sadly:

among the many kings, andy lau suffers the most.

being an “artist” is not an easy job, and maintaining good reviews for more than 40 years is even harder.

since andy lau joined the tvb artist training class in 1981, this king of "infernal affairs" has been treading on thin ice under the watchful eyes of several generations:

at the end of the movie "mr. red carpet", andy lau walked alone in a huge conference room in a cbd office building in beijing.

there is no glory in the future, only loneliness.

this is how andy lau is seen by a passerby.

he had to work hard, not just for his fans but for himself.

because he is the "son of hong kong".