Peter immigration consulting

This article was published in the official account of Hong Kong Film WeChat.

Text: Annie

"Dear Xiao Ting, I have arrived at the port safely.

There are many people and cars, and the building is extremely high. I heard that there are also many thieves!

Cantonese people speak rudely and loudly.

Xiao Ting, I really miss you. "

Sweet honey

Comrade: It's almost a love story.

In the middle and late 1990s, I heard that there was such a literary film in Hong Kong, which aroused my interest. At that time, vcd players and pirated CDs were popular, so the "Sweet Honey" we saw was pirated.

20 15 February 13 when the original movie first appeared on the mainland screen, I was sitting alone in the Huan Yi Cinema on Nanjing West Road, but the familiar music and pictures were not with me. Like the host and hostess, they immigrated to the other side of the earth.

There are hundreds of articles about this film 20 years ago, which are analyzed from all aspects and angles ... In fact, it is still a sincere work and the heyday of Hong Kong movies.

What I want to talk about today is the regret that many people think-there are no tidbits that fans want on the restored CD, but behind these fragmentary stories, we can get a glimpse of the truth of that year.

Interviewer: Duan Liyang Ishihara

Translation: Annie

Acknowledgement: Ruoxi

Source: Sweet Honey, Japanese magazine

Why is it dawn?

As we all know, the previous name of Sweet Honey is Big City and Little Thing, but many people don't know that it also has a previous name called Beijing Summer.

The first person mentioned is not the director and starring role, but Shanzhi Chen, the second agent of Dawn.

1985 When Peter was filming an American TV series in Hong Kong, he found Joe who looked exactly like himself. At that time, he was the assistant director of Peter's play and Joe was the assistant director of clothing. Two people started their friendship for more than 30 years because of the same aesthetic standards.

Joe was a generalist in the entertainment circle before he became a professional agent, but before he took over as an agent in 1994, he thought that Dawn could make a difference on the big screen according to his own experience in the circle.

1995 One day, Peter called Joe, hoping that Dawn could make a film for another UFO director, but Joe didn't agree. He hoped that Peter could find Dawn to start a play, because Peter was the best UFO director, but Peter's reaction at that time was very direct: "Afraid? My feelings for him are very general, and I really can't think of which drama to give him! "

So Joe played the friendship card and advised Peter to get as close to him as possible.

1June, 995, Joe took Peter to see the last performance of Li Ming's singing, and then went to Li's home.

Joe, who is familiar with their temper, is afraid that they may be unhappy when they meet for the first time. Who knows that an hour later, they "invited" him to leave, and the first contact between them was actually able to talk until 1 6 o'clock in the morning.

When Faye Wong refused to play, Peter wanted to give up because he couldn't find a suitable candidate, but he suddenly thought of Maggie Cheung, but he was worried that such a match would have a feeling that his sister-in-law was in love, which was also a sentence from Joe: "Isn't it more reasonable for Li Qiao to look like Li Xiaojun's sister?" Because of this, it is more reasonable for her to be' old' in the early stage (such as selling tapes and queuing up as a party)! "

1997 At the 10th Tokyo Film Festival, Li Ming talked about the past when interviewed by reporter and film critic Duan Liyang Ishihara, saying that when he first met Peter, Sweet Honey had no script and no framework, but in the four months before the script was completed, he and Peter met twice or three times a week, mainly to tell their experiences after emigrating to Hong Kong.

Is Dawn Li Xiaojun?

The first scene we see now is the confusion and perplexity of Li Xiaojun standing at the railway station when he first arrived in Hong Kong, which is a true portrayal of his first arrival in Hong Kong.

When Ishihara asked if the character was the same as myself, he replied, "Most of them are similar, but my character is not as weak as the character." Asked whether he participated in the script creation because of providing experience, he told the truth: "Having experience doesn't mean that you can write a script, but director Chen didn't help much in this play, just felt that the performance was natural."

Before the original release of 20 15, director Chen talked about the story behind Sweet Honey at the Golden Horse Film Festival, saying that he wanted to shoot something gloomy at first, and felt that dark things might be more profound.

I wanted to shoot a story like Midnight Cowboy (1969). Originally, I wanted to film immigrants from two big cities, working at the bottom and touching things outside the edge or moral boundary. Unlike Midnight Cowboy, there are two men, but a man and a woman.

Because Dawn is handsome, some rich women may give him money.

At that time, I was young and wanted to challenge my own limits and standards.

After that, I talked to Ivy Ho about the script and told her that I wanted to use Dawn and cooperate with him, because he also had a background of Chinese mainland coming to Hong Kong, and this role could amplify his strengths. Ivy Ho likes dawn, too, so everyone started writing plays.

After writing, she returned to a warmer plot. The death at the beginning of writing the script was really a touching point for them, not only because Deng was a "cross-strait and three places" figure, but also partly because of his love for him.

You can't help wondering why Chen Dao likes Dawn.

He said that he was a little resistant at first, but he just thought he was a good newcomer. Most idols, directors and young artists will resist, and the four kings have some rejection except their schoolmates. That was true at the time.

At that time, several people in the company suggested that they could try to cooperate with Liming. They also looked at his previous things and felt that they didn't play very well.

He thinks Li is simple and upright.

This "truth" is superficial under some beautiful clothes, and it may be better to put in the role of new immigrants. People from the mainland, who are more rustic, don't like it so much, especially male audiences, and even like it. I think it is worthwhile to do so.

Because the play later became good friends with him, I didn't know him that well when I was filming. When I heard him tell some emotional stories in the publicity, I realized that his personality was very similar to that of Li Xiaojun.

The McDonald's in the film is actually KFC.

Guangdong Road, one of the classic scenes in Sweet Honey, where Li Xiaojun rode Li Qiao, has experienced personnel changes for nearly 20 years. The only thing that hasn't changed is this DFS duty-free shop.

Chungking mansions is famous for Wong Kar-wai's movies, but not many people know that this is also the location where director Chen filmed Sweet Honey-the place where he broke up with Li Qiao for the first time, on the sidewalk outside the building.

Room 527, where they dated, is also the room in this building. When McDonald's refused to rent the venue to the crew, they had to borrow Kenteki.

Director Chen said with a smile: "We did a very bad thing at that time, and the production team went to KFC. They are friendly and willing to shoot us. We filmed all the McDonald's scenes in KFC. The producer kept chatting with the manager while filming. As soon as he left, Maggie Cheung put on a McDonald's hat. Because time is tight, all our McDonald's shots are close-ups, otherwise it will be ruined. At that time, Hong Kong movies were very grassroots, and filming was really like a rat crossing the street, hitting people everywhere. You must enter the state at any time. "

Some people think it's a bit exaggerated to see the film using march of the volunteers to represent mainlanders. Director Chen said that he had only been to the mainland once and was unfamiliar with it. He just thinks that mainlanders will have more patriotic feelings when they come to Hong Kong, because Hong Kong people don't have such feelings.

However, he has always been meticulous in his work, and specially invited a group performance of Tianjin immigrants in the crew to teach Liming to speak Mandarin and Cantonese with Tianjin accent. Of course, I believe only Hong Kong people can understand this feeling of Cantonese people.

Maggie Cheung's clothes and makeup are the result of his pleasant cooperation with Chung-Man Hai and Dora Ng, because they are in line with the feeling of new immigrants coming to Hong Kong.

Li Xiaojun's simple hairstyle can be considered as sacrificing his image for this role, but he has to consider the image of an actor or singer. So he deliberately made four shapes with a computer and went to Liming's house to cut them for more than four hours.

The first time I tried to advertise in movies was because of the cooperation between Hutchison Telecom and Liming, and then there were bank cards and small town gold shops.

In this regard, director Chen lamented that the film "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves", which was started at the same time, could not be filmed because this film with a middle-class background was more suitable for implantation, and said that advertisers at that time looked down on movies.

Chen Kexin's View of Love

On Chen Dao's view of love.

He feels like Li Xiaojun, because this role has always been naive.

He also yearns to be a leopard brother, but his mentality seems a little young, naive and idealistic, and he can't see through the world of mortals, which is very contradictory.

Classics are hard to copy.

The restoration of this film is entirely due to the Venice Film Festival, because the copyright already belongs to Warner.

Talking about the experience of recovery: "I finally decided to keep the stereo, because right or wrong is the decision of that age." As long as it is restored to the best technical state, it should not change the artistic decision. You can cut it again if you need to change it. It must be better. Ten or twenty years later, there must be a better idea, but this is to overthrow yourself 20 years ago. It should be original. "

When an excellent script meets an actor who can spark, even the supporting role shines brightly-because a guest English teacher was invited from (that's because he really has a crush on Zhang and was cheated by Chen), Du's exaggerated performance surprised the audience. There is also Brother Bao, who turned around on the boat on the way to escape, and that sense of vicissitudes ... made him the image of the gangster boss in Infernal Affairs.

Before watching Sweet Honey, most people had the same impression of Hong Kong movies as I did, which was nothing more than comedy, Jianghu and gambling. But after watching this movie that year, I immediately overturned my point of view. How many literary films can achieve such smooth and perfect details?

It is precisely because of its rigorous and meticulous attitude and relaxed and natural style that it still stands in the best position of China movies after 20 years and becomes a classic like a movie textbook.

There is a movie called Xianggang.