He was the first martial arts instructor in Chinese history and formed a deep friendship with Ip Man. Yuan Heping, known as "the world's first martial artist", regards him as a god;And Leslie Cheung changed his name because of his words.
Maybe you don't know his identity, but as long as you like ** Hong Kong kung fu movies, you must have seen the character he plays: an eccentric old man with gray hair and rosacea.
He was always drunk and doing all kinds of strange actions, chivalrous and righteous, helping the needy, ragged clothes, carrying a wine jug around his waist, and his appearance was not good.
The classic lines he taught to Jackie Chan are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and some people can even recite them backwards: "I teach my apprentices, don't learn kung fu first, learn to fall first!.""I sit and eat the mountain empty, waiting to be fed, and everyone calls me Su Huazi. ”
In the era when Hong Kong movies were popular in Japan, many characters based on classic Hong Kong martial arts stars were portrayed in anime games.
Yuan Xiaotian, he is the prototype of Gohan, the grandfather of Monkey King in "Dragon Ball", and the prototype of Zhen Yuanzhai, the martial arts predecessor who penetrates the origin power of the universe in "The King of Fighters".
What kind of charm does Yuan Xiaotian, an elderly gentleman, have?If you look through his life history, you will be surprised to find that he has become a legend in the Hong Kong film industry.
Yuan Xiaotian was born in Beijing in 1912. At that time, it was an era when the Beiyang warlords were fighting, the mountains and rivers were broken, and the people were struggling to make a living.
Because of the fact that foreign devils often bullied the Chinese, there was a craze for martial arts training among the people at that time, and it was widely believed that only through martial arts could one make a living.
Only by reviving the martial soul can the country rise. Yuan Xiaotian has loved martial arts since he was a child, he is proficient in the northern school of kung fu, and has in-depth research on martial arts routines such as the twelve-way Tan leg, eight-step boxing, mandarin duck foot, and drunken eight immortals, and can be said to be a real martial arts master.
During the ** period, the Chinese opera industry flourished, and due to the large number of fight scenes often appeared in the drama, some famous drama artists would specially hire martial arts instructors to guide their performances in order to achieve a more exquisite state in order to pursue a higher performance effect.
Yuan Xiaotian served as the Cantonese opera action director of Cantonese opera master Xue Juexian, integrating the northern school of martial arts into Cantonese opera performances.
Through this experience, Yuan Xiaotian realized that it was possible to adapt the traditional strong and fierce northern martial arts movements into a soft, rigid, elegant and chic style suitable for performance, which also made him have a strong interest in acting career. Therefore, after being introduced by a friend, he began to enter the Hong Kong film industry.
Although he has a mediocre appearance and is not suitable for the leading role in a movie, his superb northern kung fu has attracted much attention in the film industry.
As the Hong Kong film industry was just starting at that time, most of the actors used traditional opera movements when filming the scenes, which were full of artistic sense, but lacked the fierce duels and technical sense they should have, so they left a comedic impression.
The film industry is in dire need of a professional martial arts master like him, so Yuan Xiaotian decided to work as a martial arts stuntman, specializing in performing difficult martial arts moves for some stars.
In the movie "Kanto Hero", Yuan Xiaotian played the stand-in of the heroine Wu Lizhu, bringing many wonderful fight scenes to the movie, and this movie was once all the rage.
In the 60s of the 20th century, Hong Kong ushered in a large influx of talents, which promoted the vigorous development of Hong Kong's literature and art, and also laid the foundation for the first period of Hong Kong films.
With his excellent martial arts skills and superb direction of film action scenes, Yuen gradually made a name for himself in the Hong Kong film industry.
In 1960, the film "Iron Arm King Kong" directed by Wang Tianlin first showed the name of "martial arts instructor Yuan Xiaotian" in the end credits.
There was no martial arts instructor in the film industry in the past, but then the concept began to emerge in earnest, and Yuan Xiaotian became China's first martial arts instructor.
In 1963, Yuan Xiaotian made a cameo appearance in the American film "Beijing 55 Days" and served as a martial arts instructor.
In the sixties of the last century, he participated in a number of well-known martial arts black and white films, such as "Sword Shadow God and Demon", "Soul Snatcher Flag", "Heaven and Dragon Slayer" and "Crane Divine Needle New Chapter", creating the role of many martial arts masters. Subsequently, he also starred in an important role in Kwan Tak Hing's version of "Once Upon a Time".
In 1964, director Ling Yun directed the martial arts fantasy Cantonese film "The Palm of the Gods" series, adapted from the classic martial arts "Heavenly Buddha Palm" by Taiwanese martial arts ** Liu Yanyang, which was a great success in Hong Kong.
Characters such as "Dragon Sword Flying" and "Fire Cloud Evil God" in the movie became household names, and many wonderful stunt designs were admired by Hong Kong audiences at the time.
At that time, Yuan Xiaotian had become a big figure in the Hong Kong film industry, and under his promotion, Hong Kong action movies began their first new transformation. The design of these brilliant action stunts is inseparable from martial arts instructor Yuan Xiaotian.
As Yuan Xiaotian got older, his physical condition was much worse than before. Since 1970, he has been in the background to nurture his five sons. And these five sons make up the famous "Yuan Jiaban" in the Hong Kong film circle.
Yuan Heping, Yuan Shunyi, Yuan Xiangren, Yuan Richu, Yuan Longju, these are the names of the five sons.
Yuan Heping inherited his father's mantle and became an outstanding martial arts instructor.
Jackie Chan's early masterpieces include his films "Serpentine" and "Drunken Fist", while in terms of martial arts instruction, he worked on films such as "Wong Fei Hung", "Tai Chi Zhang Sanfeng" and "Jingwu Heroes", which became important milestones in Hong Kong's martial arts action films in the 90s.
Jet Li is either elegant and chic in the movie, or punches to the flesh, showing hearty action scenes, which is inseparable from the kung fu carefully designed by martial arts instructor Yuan Heping.
After Yuan Heping, he entered Hollywood in one fell swoop and laid his own world in Hong Kong.
With his film works such as the "Matrix" series, "Kill Bill" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", he has fascinated countless foreign audiences with Chinese action scenes, thus becoming "the world's No. 1 martial arts instructor" and has been given the nickname "Yuan Baye".
Yuan Heping's success is inseparable from the cultivation and support of Yuan Xiaotian's father.
Hong Kong action cinema came to a halt in 1973 due to the sudden death of Bruce Lee, a generation of action superstars at the time.
Since Bruce Lee monopolized the action movie market at the time, other action movie actors and martial artists completely lost the opportunity to display their talents.
Yuan Heping seized the moment at this stage, and he believed that others could not imitate Bruce Lee's hard, lethal style, but why not open up a new path and get out of a different style from Bruce Lee?
With the help of his father, he combined his years of experience as a martial arts instructor to find a unique martial arts style route: witty and humorous kung fu comedy.
After he was affirmed by Siyuan, he began to direct his own first-class film "Serpentine Trickster" in 1978. For this movie, Yuan Heping was very cautious, and after thousands of choices, he finally chose Jackie Chan.
When Jackie Chan had not yet become a kung fu superstar, he suffered from loneliness and frustration, and he had been groping for a successful path, and was ridiculed as "box office poison".
In order to support his son's film career, Yuan Xiaotian also chose to participate in this movie and played the role of Bai Changtian.
In the movie "Serpentine Trickster" directed by Yuan Heping, Jackie Chan played a young man in the market who is unlearned and idle, Jian Fu, who is completely different from Bruce Lee's previous heroic image.
His action performances are humorous, like vaudeville, but they show the true feeling of hard-core kung fu in the funny. Bai Changtian is played by Yuan Xiaotian, who is Jian Fu's master, and assists Jackie Chan in the play to show wonderful tricks such as "Iron Plate Bridge" and "Serpentine Trickster".
The bowl trick he encouraged Jian Fushi to perform was a pure technique full of the acrobatic flavor of the old Beijing Tianqiao.
As soon as the film was released, it was an instant hit in Hong Kong, with a box office of 2.7 million Hong Kong dollars, and also achieved amazing box office results in Taiwan. In the end, the global box office reached 6.5 million US dollars, becoming the runner-up of the 1978 Chinese-language film.
Seeing the enthusiasm of Hong Kong audiences for kung fu comedy, Yuan Heping's father, Yuan Xiaotian, decided to strike while the iron was hot and released the movie "Drunken Fist" because they realized the audience's fascination with this type of movie.
In the movie, Jackie Chan plays the idle and troublesome gangster "Huang Feihong", after the guidance of Su Huazi, he finally learned to get drunk, and used this stunt to defeat the big bad guy who came to challenge.
Su Huazi, played by Yuan Xiaotian, behaves strangely and always looks like she was drunk and didn't wake up. He "tortured" Huang Feihong by various means in the play, and at the same time made the audience laugh outside the play.
Yuan Xiaotian showed real kung fu in this play, such as "bunching cloth into sticks", "hanging paintings on the wall", and "drunken eight immortals", and his wonderful performance was not inferior to the male protagonist. As soon as the movie was released, it set off a boom in Southeast Asia, and Su Huazi's role has also become a classic screen drunk image.
Originally, it was just to help my son, but I didn't expect to become famous all over the country!The white-haired wine bottle-nosed boxing saint "Zhen Yuan Zhai" in the popular Japanese game "The King of Fighters" is based on Yuan Xiaotian.
Stephen Chow starred in "Wu Zhuangyuan Su Qier" in 1992, in which Su Qier's beggar dress can also be seen as a tribute to the "Su Huazi" played by Yuan Xiaotian.
Yuan Xiaotian successively starred in movies such as "Drunken Man Su Qier", "Sleeping Boxing Tricks", "North and South Drunken Boxing", and frequently played the role of a funny and eccentric drunken old man in these works.
Yuan Heping's success can be said to be inseparable from the strong support of his father Yuan Heping, who cooperated in the movie and made his son's career to a higher level.
In addition, he also gave his son a lot of guidance and advice on filmmaking outside the play, adding luster to his son's achievements.
Yuan Heping benefited greatly from these helps, and many years later, when talking about his father Yuan Xiaotian, he said on a program: "I regard my father as a god!”
Yuan Xiaotian's other sons have also made new achievements in the film industry, not only Yuan Heping, who has caused a sensation at home and abroad, but they have also begun to emerge.
Yuan Xiangren was an outstanding martial arts instructor who founded the "Peace Film Company" with his eldest brother Yuan Heping and became a key figure in the "Yuan Family Class".
He is keen to make cameo appearances in movies, and has played the role of an old beggar who teaches Xing Ye "Sleeping Luohan Boxing" in "Wu Zhuangyuan Su Qier", an old lady Dunjia in "Da Nei Secret Agent Zero Hair", and a homeless man who sold the cheats to Xing Ye in "Kung Fu".
He always behaves sloppy and eccentric in the play, which is very similar to the style of his father Yuan Xiaotian.
Yuen Xinyi, who is both a famous martial arts instructor in Hong Kong and a high-profile villain actor, has left his footprints in 90 films.
He has played the white-fronted tiger of the northern Hebei thief in "The Brave and Fearless", the fatal judge in the "Three Monsters of Strange Mountains" in "Eagle Claw Iron Cloth Shirt", and also played the role of a two-faced man in "Ouchi Secret Agent Zero Hair".
And Yuan Xinyi's son Yuan Richu received strong support from his brother Yuan Heping, starring in movies such as "Qimen Dunjia", "Heavenly Master Collides with Evil" and "Ghost Horse Heavenly Master".
Yuan Longju is the youngest member of the Yuan family's class, and has served as a martial arts instructor and actor, and participated in the filming of films such as "Martial Champion Su Qier" and "Drunken Man Su Qier".
It can be said that Yuanjiaban has gathered many talents. In addition to the children of the Yuan family, there is also a kung fu superstar who is also from the Yuan family's class, that is Donnie Yen.
Yuan Xiaotian is not only busy taking care of his sons' film careers, but also promoting his juniors.
Leslie Cheung, a young man who had just returned from studying in the UK, actually used the name "Zhang Fazhong" at the time, and later changed to a more fashionable stage name after entering the entertainment industry: Zhang Fazong.
Who would have thought that the old-timer Yuan Xiaotian would feel quite dissatisfied after hearing his name, thinking that this name is pronounced like "swollen" in Cantonese, which is not auspicious enough and may affect his fortune.
The young Zhang Fazong followed the advice of his predecessors and changed his name to "Leslie Cheung", and since then, this name will be with him for the rest of his life.
Because of his long-term engagement in martial arts instruction, Yuan Xiaotian's body became weaker and weaker, until he suffered from liver cancer in his later years. He died in 1980 at the age of 68.
Yuan Xiaotian's life is full of legends, starting from his youth in Wu'an, and has grown into a generation of martial arts instructors and pioneers of the Yuan family class. He has made a lot of contributions to the glory of Hong Kong films, which is inseparable from his enthusiasm and youth.
The classic image of the eccentric old man with white hair and wine trough nose will always be engraved on the screen and will never fade.
The Yuan family class, formed by his sons, inherited his film career and brought new vitality to martial arts films.
Although Yuan Lao is no longer active in the rivers and lakes, we can still re-enjoy the movie "Drunken Fist" and feel the screen style of a generation of drunken heroes.