[The Epoch Times, January 03, 2023](Reported by Epoch Times reporter Tong Yijia) On January 2, Stephen Chow (Xingye) shared a still photo of the movie “God of Cookery” on Instagram (IG), with the text: ” In the new year, if you have any wishes, tell them all!” Hong Kong star Chen Handian left a message saying that he wants to see Master Xing act again, but Zhou Xingchi responded: “Since you are so supportive, I have to think about it!” There seems to be a return to act will. (Click to see the photo)
Zhou Xingchi created the “Zhou Xingchi Era” of Hong Kong movies by starring in “The Gambler” and other films, broke the box office records of Hong Kong films many times, and established his status as the “King of Comedy” in Hong Kong.
The 60-year-old Zhou Xingchi has completely retreated behind the scenes since he directed and acted in the movie “Yangtze River No. 7”. Although it has been rumored that he will come back to the front of the screen, he has not been seen for more than 10 years, which makes many fans disappointed and curious. Hong Kong director Wong Jing, who has worked with Stephen Chow for many years, once analyzed the reasons behind it.
According to Wong Jing’s analysis, Stephen Chow’s comedy performances are easier for young actors. As Zhou Xingchi grows older, if he does some exaggerated performances and movements, he may not be able to adapt.
When analyzing the difficulty of comedy performances, Wang Jing said that when a comedian plays a comedy, he must make the audience laugh with the jokes of a sentence and the actor’s facial expressions and movements. Because everyone has a different point of laughter, it is difficult for some audiences with a high point of laughter to be conquered by the work. Unless the actors interpret the performance to the extreme, every audience can be guaranteed to laugh. In his view, this is an extraordinary difficulty.
Due to the exaggerated movements and expressions in comedy performances, Wang Jing believes, “acting in comedy is ten times more tiring than acting in any drama. It is tiring when you have to convince yourself to do so.”
Although Wang Jing and Zhou Xingchi have not cooperated for many years, and there are even rumors that Zhou Xingchi did not want to guest-star even for a minute in the film directed by Wang Jing, which caused the two to break up, but Wang Jing still admires Zhou Xingchi very much and believes that Zhou Xingchi’s comedy talent 30 No one surpassed it within the year, and it was an accident and a necessity to call Stephen Chow directly.
According to Hong Kong media reports earlier, Stephen Chow signed a gambling agreement with the Chinese financial backers when he sold shares in a private company for 1.33 billion (RMB, the same below) in 2017. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, Star Master has not released a movie for several years, which caused the box office of the movie to fall far short of expectations, and the difference must be compensated according to the agreement. Due to the dispute over the amount of compensation, it was rumored that the two parties would confront Bo in court. It was also rumored that Stephen Chow mortgaged his “Tianbigao” mansion with a market value of 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars to JPMorgan Chase Bank in order to cash out about 500 million Hong Kong dollars. At that time, many netizens worried that there was a problem with the working capital of his new film.
Xiao Ruoyuan, a senior Hong Kong filmmaker who immigrated to Taiwan at the end of 2019, once lamented in a self-media program: “Who would have guessed that since Fan Bingbing’s yin and yang contract in 2018, the prohibition of flooding figures, hundreds of restrictions, and the CCP government has been chasing the entertainment industry for three years. This year, due to the epidemic, theaters are not allowed to release films, everyone is in serious trouble, even movie genius Stephen Chow has been financially troubled.”
Zhou Xingchi, who has a low-key personality, opened his first social account in October last year, and interacted with netizens on IG from time to time. He was named “Hong Kong Comedy King”, and his first post “recruiting talents” was very humorous and reminiscent to his many classic comedies. In the article, “Looking for outstanding #Web3 talents in the dark” is obviously adapted from the dialogue of the movie “Domestic Lingling Paint”; “He has a brain and a kind heart”, which reminds fans of his movie “The God of Cookery”.
Editor in charge: Yang Ming