Dark War those things you don't know
In 1999, Andy Lau won the Best Actor at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards with Du Qifeng's directed work "Dark War", and since then he has completely got rid of the saying of "no acting skills" and truly embarked on the road of film emperor. It is said that the film "Dark War" was originally intended to make Andy Lau a perverted murderer, because the script of the film was originally written by two Frenchmen, who did not care about the name of the "Four Heavenly Kings" idol, only whether the works they wrote sold well.
The two French screenwriters, Julien Carbon and Laurent Cortiod, borrowed from the story structure of the classic Hollywood film "The Negotiator" and added many novel and perverted plots along the way. For example, Andy Lau dressed as a woman, and even asked Liu Qingyun to kiss him, this plot can be called the magic stroke of the whole film, and all the people who have seen it are really both applauded and want to vomit.
As for the particularly perverted plot, it is estimated that all the resources of the film on the market will no longer be available, that is, Li Zixiong's men will take turns to bully each other in front of and in front of their husbands in order to interrogate The whereabouts of Andy Lau... If the editors remember correctly, this explicit plot appeared in some of the 2000 rip tapes (the picture needs to be made up, a bit close to the paragraph in Jiang Wen's film "Let the Bullets Fly").
Of course, the French teammates have their own understanding of the film, and the Chinese filmmakers also have their own considerations, after all, a movie must first meet its own national conditions, can not copy the standard of Spanish suspense films, half of the wisdom and half of the ethics... In the end, the script reached the hands of the script coordinator You Naihai, and the magic pen was rewritten into the "double male" model, and Andy Lau and Liu Qingyun were both good and evil, and in the confrontation of wits and courage, they jointly completed a righteous mission.
Dark War originally had a prequel
In fact, Du Qifeng, You Naihai, and Situ Jinyuan began to conceive of the story of "Dark War" as early as 1997, but the name of the script had not yet been finalized at that time, and they envisioned making a movie similar to "Double Male", playing with the coolness of Hong Kong films, and telling some irrelevant jianghu morality. So in 1998, a test of the water was born, named "True Heart Hero".
"True Heart Hero" starred Li Ming and Liu Qingyun, the editors saw this lineup for the first time, almost thought that this was another Hong Kong film with a fire theme, but what they saw was an authentic gangster movie. In the film, Li Liu and Liu are not good people, and each assists a gang leader to do bad things. Dawn plays Jack, Liu Qingyun plays Brother Qiu, the two are armed with special skills and in and out of the famous brand, usually with dozens of little brothers are majestic, really everywhere they go are admired by everyone.
It's just a pity that each of them is its own master, and even though the two people feel sorry for each other, they are helpless in the jianghu and eventually become you and me. In the end, in a cabin in the forest on a rainy night, both of them were crippled in the melee. However, it is very funny that the big guy who gave up their lives to protect each other actually became good friends after Li Liu quit the jianghu, and even developed and grew to set up a joint company. In contrast, Brother Qiu and Jack (played by Li Liu), one was sawn off his legs, the other relied on working in Thailand for a living, and the former scenery was gone.
What is puzzling is that the respective bosses of Brother Qiu and Ah Jack actually sent a killer to try to kill them after learning the news that they were still alive in the human world. I have to say that this kind of persona that violates the morality of the jianghu is destined to become cannon fodder in Du Qifeng's films, and Du Sir always likes to live in his own world to conceive of alternative jianghu and sow to people the moral seeds that people in the jianghu in his mind should have.
It can be said that the first half of the whole film is both interesting and emotional, which is in line with the consistent characteristics of Hong Kong films. So far, we still can't see Liu Qingyun and Dawn rubbing any sparks with each other, and we can only say that we have seen the ingenuity of the director and screenwriter. It is not until the second half of the movie that it is the real moment when their acting skills explode. In particular, Liu Qingyun is completely acting out this prequel of "Dark War" in accordance with the director's mind. In the film, Qiu Ge, who escaped death, decided to return to Hong Kong to be humiliated, because his legs had been sawn off, he practiced his arm strength and finally climbed to the top floor of the building, waiting for the opportunity to snipe and kill the enemy. Not once twice, not twice three times...
Seeing this, we almost forgot that this was once a gangster film, as if Liu Qingyun was acting out another Chinese version of "Rocky". It must be admitted that from the early years of "Dumb Guy Bai Shou" to this "True Heart Hero", Liu Qingyun's works have always been very inspirational. It is said that when Liu Qingyun was filming a scene of begging on the street, Du Qifeng did not clear the scene at all. And Liu Qingyun is not ambiguous, squatting on the car of the disabled to experience life. At that time, some fans felt that the person in front of them was very familiar, but they still firmly believed that the superstar would never shoot like this... This is probably what a good actor should look like.
In addition, liu qingyun and Guo Aiming were still filming the ending of "True Heart Hero" in Bangkok, Thailand, three days before their marriage, and Du Qifeng asked Liu Qingyun to walk through the glass of the explosion in a wheelchair. Because the filming process was very dangerous, Liu Qingyun explained to the screenwriter You Naihai that in case of an accident, please send him back to Hong Kong directly, and he will see Guo Aiming for the last time. Fortunately, the explosion scene was filmed extremely smoothly, and "Mr. Liu, a vegetable buyer", returned home safely.
Hong Kong movies have a characteristic, the dark moon wind high killing night, pigeons flying when revenge. When the former big man issued the "jianghu hunting order", the carrier pigeon took off. What they could not have dreamed of was that Ah Jack had also pushed the dead Brother Qiu to come, vowing to ask for an explanation for his deceased friend, and a bloody killing was inevitable...
You must know one or two before watching the movie
Rather than being a prequel to Dark War, True Heart Hero is the second True Heart Hero. In the movie, the melody we hear the most is sukiyaki, Chinese translated as "Sukiyaki". The song, both in rhythm and style, is very close to the later episode "Encounter on the Minibus" in "Dark War", which is the romantic and beautiful scene staged by Andy Lau and Meng Jiahui when they evaded the police.
In addition, "True Heroes" also created a precedent for Asian urban Westerns, such as the scene where Dawn and Liu Qingyun led their men to pee collectively under the palm tree, which is to emulate the Hollywood Western film "The Seven Dragons"; and the coin tossing in the bar to beat the wine glass is born from the fast gun wine glass in the John Wayne Western movie...
It's just a pity that "True Heart Hero" was applauded but not sold after the release, although it won the award and got soft, but the failed box office caused a serious financial crisis for Galaxy Imaging, and even almost went out of business. As a result, such a good film is not as famous as "Dark War", and it is not widely distributed because of its excellent production. Therefore, except for enthusiasts, almost no one mentions this Hong Kong film classic. It has to be said that wanting to have both fish and bear paws, maintaining the so-called balance between art and box office is the most troublesome thing for artists. This is also the fundamental reason why the difference between Stephen Chow's early starring role and his own work in the later stage is so huge.
Some people say that there is no so-called brotherhood between Brother Qiu and Jack, and the reason why Du Qifeng let the two finally meet for revenge is completely a clone of the spirit of wu xx prevalent in Japanese movies, which is a chivalrous act of seeking revenge from generation to generation. Is this really the case? In 2001, Andy Lau and Takashi Anti-Machi starred in "Full-time Killer" is also written by Du Qifeng, not to mention that there is really a bit of that taste. However, this statement is still difficult for editors to accept, because as early as the Warring States period of China, "Han Feizi" has clearly recorded this kind of deeds performed by Wei Guo dafu Hong. To put it bluntly, the Japanese have actually inherited traditional Chinese culture for thousands of years, and du Qifeng is also the same.