Liu Guanwei's Personal Life

1, the youngest photography studio in Hong Kong.

I have been on Xiao's set since I was a child, because my father is a film artist. At that time, Shaw was still a father-son company, and had not built the big factory in Clear Water Bay, but rented the Daguan Film Studio in Diamond Hill to shoot.

My first photo film was Seventeen Years of Searching for Mother, starring Ni Tian, which was filmed in Taiwan Province. I used to be a photography assistant and filmed Teresa Teng's Farewell 17. It should be 1973 or 74. At that time, he was only in his early twenties and was the youngest photographer in the film circle.

The film industry in Taiwan Province Province is in recession, and its technology lags behind that of Hong Kong, so I went back to Hong Kong to develop and started as a photography assistant again. Later, under the introduction of my brother Huashan (who later became a director), I took the lead in photography again in Rock Breaking.

Knowing Sammo Hung and starting as a director was not successful.

I met Sammo Hung through Billy Chen. At that time, Sammo Hung and Mai Jia set up Garbo Company to shoot "Fighting for Life". I often listen to them discussing scripts on the set, and I became interested in being a director.

Later, Guy Lai asked me to be a director, so I greeted my eldest brother (Sammo Hung) and filmed "If you have a trick, you will win". At that time, I didn't know how to be a director, as long as the lens was coherent and I didn't jump. Not long after, my eldest brother asked me to shoot "The Tooth Swinging Tiger", which was not very successful. So I told my eldest brother, I'd better go back to photography.

3. The creation of Mr. Zombie has experienced twists and turns.

When I was filming Watch Your Hands, I wanted to be a director again, so I made a script about zombies in private, planned it for a year, and invited Huang Bingyao, Situ Zhuohan and Huang Ying to do it together. Because my uncle is a master of Maoshan, I heard many stories about Maoshan magic when I was a child. It is said that Master Mao Shan is either dead or dead, and there are no descendants after his death. He was in pain before he died, and all the ghosts in the town he caught before he died would come to him. My uncle said my uncle was in pain before he died. Also, at that time, "Ghosts" and "Scaring People" made by Big Brother were very popular, so I wanted to make a different ghost film, so I thought of zombies.

Mr. Zombie cost 4.5 million yuan and was a medium-sized production, which took 120 days to complete. During the period, the investment was continuously increased, and finally it cost 8.5 million yuan. Boss (He Guanchang) and Big Brother (Sammo Hung) predicted that the film would sell at most 6 million, with a loss of 2 million! After listening to this, I was very depressed. I thought my career as a director was over and planned to return to my old job as a photographer.

Surprisingly, Mr. Zombie was first released in Taiwan Province Province. I was invited to Ximending by the boss there (there are more cinemas here), and I actually saw many people queuing to buy tickets. There was laughter, crying and applause at the scene. I secretly recorded it with a tape recorder and played it to my eldest brother. He was surprised: Is it so outrageous?

Soon after Mr. Zombie was released in Hong Kong, the box office exceeded 20 million. Many people followed suit. Billy Chan made a movie called Zombie Metamorphosis, which was very expensive. At that time, many companies asked me to go out (Golden Harvest), and really 1.5 million cash was in front of me, but I didn't leave, so I couldn't forget my roots.

Since 1985, I have made the Zombie Family, Mr. Fantasy and Uncle Zombie at the rate of one film a year, and also directed a fashion gangster film, The Loudspeaker. This script was shot when Chen Xin was alive, but soon Debao framed him for help, so I made it up, which was equivalent to a remake. At that time, I had just finished filming Mr. Zombie, and I was very tired and still had not recovered.

In my Maoshan zombie movie, the hero is "Uncle Ching-Ying Lam". He is a hard-working man and never uses body double for filming. He doesn't talk much and does things seriously. After getting sick, he arranged everything at home and sent his daughter to immigrate to the United States. I was in Thailand, and when I heard the news, I rushed back to Hong Kong to give him a ride. Ching-Ying Lam's funeral is a Buddhist ceremony. One of the monks who presided over the funeral was Brandy Yuen, who came from Yuan Jiaban and directed Berniu and Dharma.

4. Interesting talk about Liu Zhenwei, laughing at the "Baohe" era.

Liu Zhenwei mentioned the reason why he became a director, and recalled, "Wong Kar-wai and I were sitting in a cafe chatting. We were both poor screenwriters at that time. I said, "I have a chance to be a director." He said, "I also have a chance. "Then Wong Kar-wai asked me what to shoot and what to direct. It doesn't matter what I say as long as it's not too difficult. Hearing what I said, he was at a loss as to what I meant. I took the table paper from the side and wrote the name of the most famous director in Hong Kong at that time on the back. Action movies include Sammo Hung, Liu Jialiang and others, but I can't beat them. The directors of literary films are Xu Anhua and Tsui Hark, but I can't beat them. There are more comedy directors, such as Xu Guanwen and Huang Baiming, and I can't beat them. Finally, there is a man named Liu Guanwei who is making a ghost film "Mr. Zombie" series, so I will make a ghost film. Because there is only one person, it is easier to "fight", so I will fight with him. Facts have proved that my method is correct. Actually, I don't particularly like making ghost films, but I am a lazy person. I don't want to hit many people, just one person. There is also the feeling of fish in troubled waters, "Liu Zhenwei" and "Liu Guanwei". People think I am him.

(I told this story to director Liu Guanwei, and he smiled:) Among the directors who make zombie films or ghost films, Liu Zhenwei is actually my competitor. Because the cost of every play he made is very low, that is, three or four million, but the box office is good. His movies, because of the cost, poor picture quality and so on, are just funny, which is his skill. When I was filming Uncle Zombie, there was an interesting scene in which Loretta Lee Qian Jiale was stuck with maltose. Liu Zhenwei saw the play at the midnight performance, and he told me that his next play happened to be similar. I smiled: I took it, you can change it.

Yuan Kui and I are both members of Baohe River in Sammo Hung. Later, Yuan Kui and Liu Zhenwei became partners. I always think that Yuan Kui's movies are very atmospheric and beautiful, but the box office has been around 10 million. He was not persuaded to cooperate with Liu Zhenwei, which was only a combination of civil and military affairs.

Baohe was founded by Sammo Hung, and its original members included Oh Ma, Qian Shengwei (cousin Sammo Hung) and me. Later, Ceng Zhiwei joined in with Zhang Jianting and Chen You. When filming "The Train of the Rich", there were six groups: me, my eldest brother, Ceng Zhiwei, Wuma, Yuan Kui and Zhang Jianting.

5. Li Saifeng et al.

I made "The Five Lucky Stars Hit Ghosts" (1992) because a jockey named Hong opened a film company, so we made such a film.

Mr. New Zombie (1992) was made for Luo Wei. He made a martial arts film "One Sword in the City" before, which cost180,000, and ended up losing a lot. Let's help the elderly. The production cost of Mr. New Zombie is very low, with a box office of 67 million. Finally, I made some money.

He also invested in a drama called Mr. Nightmare (1990). Li Saifeng and Zhang Jianting starred, and Cao Rong played the villain. It didn't cost much, but it didn't lose money. After Mr Nightmare, Li Saifeng and I broke up. We don't agree. Some people think that we started dating when Mr. Zombie was filmed. In fact, we are all insiders, so there is no need to talk about it at work. Instead, after filming Zombie Family, she left Jiahe.