In 1989, Zhang Yimou, who had just made an international name for "Red Sorghum", was preparing for his next film.
Originally, he wanted to adapt Wang Shuo's two novels, but one of the "Stubborn Lords" was taken by director MiJiashan, and the other "I Am Your Father" had to be shelved for various reasons.
It just so happened that his old classmate Gu Changwei came to him and said that there was a commercial film with anti-terrorism themes designated Zhang Yimou to shoot, invested hundreds of thousands, and everything was ready to be a bad director.
Zhang Yimou could not get away with it, and there was no other project at hand, so he could only take over the film.
But he did not expect that the movie, called "Code Name Jaguar", would attract a lot of scolding at the time and become a "pain" that he still did not want to mention.
01. China's First "Anti-Terrorism Film"
In September 1988, a plane carrying Qu Xiaozhen, chairman of Taiwan's Trans-Ocean Corporation, was hijacked by a group of terrorists on its way to Seoul.
Armed with submachine guns, the terrorist gang, which called itself the "Asian Black Task Force," quickly took control of all the crew on board, but in the confusion, the plane's dashboard was accidentally damaged by terrorists.
In desperation, the second person in the gang, Zheng Xianping (Ge You), asks the captain to land the plane in the nearest Beijing, and threatens the hostages on the plane to make several demands.
The first is to release their arrested leader, Liu Tingjun, in Taiwan, and at the same time provide a helicopter full of fuel for them to leave, otherwise all the hostages will be exterminated.
The two sides of the Taiwan Strait have taken urgent action to this end: the mainland has dispatched a PLA anti-hijacking commando team, led by captain Liang Zhuang; the Taiwan side has sent an anti-terrorism commando team led by captain Huang Jingru.
The code name of the rescue operation was "Jaguar".
The rescue operation did not go as smoothly as expected, and in successive negotiations with the commandos on both sides of the strait, the old and cunning Zheng Xianping showed extreme caution.
The commando team first wanted to inject anesthetic gas into the cabin, but was discovered by Zheng Xianping, and the deputy captain of the Taiwan commando who carried out the operation was brutally killed;
Later, he used smoke bombs to try to create the illusion of an aircraft fire, but was leaked by the accomplices who set up sentries outside, and Zheng Xianping, enraged, killed a female hostage.
The Taiwan side had no choice but to release the gang leader, and they were ready to take action to wipe them out when the two sides were in contact.
On the other hand, the leader's woman, Ali (Gong Li), after witnessing Zheng Xianping's brutal killing of hostages, is caught in the condemnation and struggle of conscience.
At the end of the film, the leader threatens Ali to try to escape, which completely erases Allie's last hope for love, and she breaks away from the leader and runs to the commando.
After a burst of gunfire, the commando leaders Liang Zhuang and Ali both fell in a pool of blood, while the leader and Zheng Xianping were also killed by the commando...
At the time, the setting of the whole story was novel enough: the mainland and Taiwan broke the deadlock for many years and joined hands to deal with terrorists, both in terms of content and theme expression, the scale was large enough.
And after watching "Code Name Jaguar", Pi Ge found that the "fate" of the old strategist and the commercial genre film was formed as early as this time.
The twists and turns of the confrontation between good and evil, the battle of wits and courage between the enemy and us, and finally our difficult completion of the task, such a plot design, can not help but remind people of "On the Cliff" that broke the box office record of spy war films.
Remember that many people on the Internet said that they did not expect that the old strategists who had never tried espionage could make this story so wonderful and sophisticated.
Nowadays, it seems that lao Mozi's filming of "On the Cliff" is not a zero foundation, in fact, there has been a similar practice in this "failed work" in the eyes of everyone.
02, Zhang Yimou's "failure"
Until now, "Code Name Jaguar" has been regarded as a major failure for Zhang Yimou, and the 5.4 rating is only higher than his "Three Guns" and "The Great Wall".
Especially at the beginning of the film's release, it was criticized by all the people: from "Red Sorghum" to "Code Name Jaguar", what did Zhang Yimou experience?
In Pigo's view, the failure of CodeName Jaguar has two main aspects.
First, there is a lack of experience in shooting commercial genre films in China.
In the mid-to-late 1980s, under the influence of Hollywood films and the country's advocacy of "theme diversification", a boom in the shooting of entertainment films emerged.
However, in the past few decades, terms such as "business" and "genre" have been absent in movies, and domestic filmmakers only know these things, let alone apply them to actual creation.
But under the influence of this trend, almost every director wants to step in, and Zhang Yimou can't stay out of the matter.
In an interview many years later, he said that he was not interested in the subject, but the preliminary preparations had been completed, and he could only shoot hard because of human feelings.
It is conceivable that this kind of work taken by ducks on the shelves is difficult to be recognized.
Therefore, after filming this film, Zhang Yimou returned to his own field of expertise, "Ju Dou", "Big Red Lantern Hanging High", "Qiu Ju Fights a Lawsuit", and step by step into his own directorial peak.
Second, and the biggest problem with the film, is that it is not "strong" enough.
Generally speaking, a qualified anti-terrorist genre film usually has these characteristics.
Intense and exciting action scenes, rich and full character portrayals, relaxed narrative rhythms, natural and true emotional expression.
But all of the above elements are either absent in this film or passed by.
For example, the scene in the film where the vice captain climbs on the plane and sets up anesthesia device should be a thrilling moment related to the overall situation;
But in the film, this suffocating action has almost become a pile of dialogue, and it is impossible to see the dangerous step by step, not to feel the crisis facing the characters, and to completely lose the tension of a thousand guns.
Bridges such as these abound in the film.
Moreover, there are so many group portrait characters involved in the film, almost all of them are reduced to "tool people" without personality, making it difficult for people to empathize with their encounters.
With a boiling water plot, vague characters, and a general low opinion of entertainment at the time, it's no surprise that CodeName Jaguar was "under siege."
03. All Taiwan reporters spontaneously filmed materials for Zhang Yimou
To be fair, CodeName Jaguar isn't actually as bad as the ratings suggest, and there are some bright spots.
For example, in photography, the film begins with a handheld camera to create a sense of hijacking chaos and panic in the shaky camera, allowing the audience to immediately immerse themselves in it.
In addition, the combination of multiple sets of photos and narration interspersed in the middle of the story creates a "pseudo-documentary" texture.
Among them, for some taiwanese street photo materials, Zhang Yimou also spent a lot of effort.
Because the two sides of the Taiwan Strait had not yet completely liberalized at that time, it was difficult for mainland workers to go to Taiwan to take pictures.
When he was at a loss, Zhang Yimou remembered Jiao Xiongping, who had the "mother of Taiwan's new films".
As a leading film scholar in Taiwan, Jiao Xiongping frequently traveled between the two sides of the strait at that time and knew many mainland directors, including Zhang Yimou.
Unexpectedly, just a few days later, Jiao Xiongping sent a large stack of materials, and the efficiency of the work was unexpected by Zhang Yimou.
Jiao Xiongping told him that because of "Red Sorghum", reporters all over Taiwan know this "talented director", so they are now rushing to help him take pictures.
04, Gong Li and Ge You held hands for the first time
In addition to the ingenuity of photography, the appearances of Gong Li and Ge You are also a highlight of the film.
At that time, Gong Li had just starred in the jiu'er who dared to love and dare to hate in "Red Sorghum", and she also fell in love with Zhang Yimou outside the play.
The most unexpected thing is that this film, which everyone seems to be so bad, let Gong Li win her first film award, the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Supporting Actress.
White shirt, white trousers, and a smart ponytail, the whole person is shrouded in a natural elegance and sensuality.
From obedience at the beginning, to sympathy for the hostages later, to the struggle of being tormented by conscience, to the final despair, Gong Li performed the tragedy of the character of Ari in a limited space.
At that time, Ge You was only an actor for four years, and his reputation had not yet been played, and this spurned "bad film" actually contributed to his second cooperation with Zhang Yimou in the future - "Alive".
In the film, Ge You is always calm and relaxed, indifferent and unpretentious, between words and deeds, hiding the fierceness and cunning of putting people to death.
Ge You's interpretation of this high-IQ criminal is quite successful, coupled with the innate black humor temperament, it can be said that the most brilliant character image in the film is none other than Ge You.
After many years, with the deepening of the understanding of commercial films, there is also a more objective evaluation of the evaluation of "Code Name Jaguar".
Today, this first hand-in-hand work of Ge You and Gong Li, although it was not very successful at the time, is still quite "fashionable" in the current view.
As Zhang Yimou's "test waters" of commercial films, its failure is inevitable; but it is also this "forced to helpless" attempt that has accumulated experience for his future commercial film shooting.
After all, the director who wants to become a "big director" has few "failed works" on the road to success?
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Ah Zhi
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