introduction
Finally, a month after the release of "King Kong Chuan", there was another new domestic film, breaking 100 million.
I don't know how many people will care about this, but watching the people in the theater gradually increase, it still makes me happy.
Let's talk about this new film, although after watching it, I told Xiao Yi that this is probably just another domestic assembly line that was forgotten after reading.
"Riot Fighting"
First of all, this "Riot Elimination", I give 6 points.
First of all, I want to admit that after 90 minutes of watching, the overall look and feel is invested, which is the main reason why it can pass. The story is simple and direct, carrying a few labels out, and there is indeed no shortage of gimmicks:
In the 1990s, the mainland gangsters killed people and crossed the border, and the police bandits were tough.
And, the male protagonist of the two males, Wang Qianyuan + Wu Yanzu. Because I didn't plan to talk about the actors much, I just said a conclusion at the beginning:
Wu Yanzu is a good actor and Wang Qianyuan is a good policeman.
Uncle Azu's future is still expected, Wang Qianyuan, sorry captain, really a little tired.
And on the night of watching "Crackdown on Violence", I turned out two more "Provincial Hong Kong Flag Soldiers".
I don't know how many people still remember this old film, but after revisiting it, I probably want to understand why "Crackdown" is only worth 6 points.
1.
Police and bandits
It should be said that most of the good feelings for "Anti-Riot" come from these two points:
The first is a completely messy, but also completely sharp narrative rhythm.
The opening scene, without saying a word, is a robbery, the reverse order structure, leading to a policeman and a bandit and a double male confrontation, but also to the film's repeated emphasis on "bite to death", set the tone.
After that, the whole story is pushed forward at high speed, all the way to the final bathhouse battle. Most of the time, the film does not leave room for the audience to think and feel. A buddy next to me whispered in the movie: Didn't this gang rob millions, how long has it been, and there is no money?
But soon, the film quickly cuts to the next robbery, and these small logical problems are immediately left behind.
This is not an absolute advantage, but it must be admitted that the fast pace does improve the perception and somewhat mask some problems. Including the increasingly chaotic narrative in the second half, it is not so timid at a fast pace.
The second point is also the biggest highlight of "Riot Crackdown":
Tough enough, direct enough.
Several robberies, killing passers-by, grenades to send children, downtown areas and police direct submachine gun sweeping, including the end of Wu Yanzu's execution.
It is not so much a large scale as it is, which partially satisfies my imaginary boundaries in the context of the mainland and the portrayal of gangsters.
Unfortunately, this sensory stimulation only stays at the physiological level in the end.
Just because, this is a movie that doesn't have much room for aftertaste. The first problem lies in the core portrayal of the movie, the confrontation between police and bandits.
Think about it, the police and bandits in "Crackdown" seem to be in the retro atmosphere of the 90s, but in fact, they are all tool people in a vacuum environment.
Just like the following two stills, the retro stage is set up, the good and evil sides pose in formation, the director makes an action, and two groups of professional models immediately enter the role to start drying.
Everywhere, it's unreal.
Why is Wu Yanzu's group of bandits so vicious and vicious? And why don't you stop committing serious crimes in a row? Is it the psychological distortion of the individual, or the demon created by social transformation?
Compared with his subordinates, Wu Yanzu especially enjoys playing the police, what is the reason behind this psychology that transcends ordinary people?
The film is omitted.
At the other end of the mirror is the policeman Wang Qianyuan.
As soon as this character appears, he has his own divinity. Determined, bold, full of wisdom, arriving at the scene of the crime, he can always see through Wu Yanzu's means at the first time, and he exudes a dazzling protagonist aura around him.
But then I found out that no matter whether you are a detective or a brave detective, the same nose is pulled, tired of running.
The divinity gradually disappeared, so it only relied on a sentence of "bite to death", repeatedly emphasizing, brainwashing the audience and giving the divinity a continuation of life.
In the end, the two characters, in vain, cut open and look closely:
However, there are two pairs of empty shells with different masks.
2.
Land and port
The hollowness of the characters is only superficial.
What should be seen is that behind "Crackdown on Violence" is another creative attempt by the filmmakers to combine "land and hong kong":
In the style of Hong Kong films, tell a mainland story.
There is nothing wrong with this starting point, and it is also the mainstream trend of land-port co-productions in recent years. Specific to "Crackdown", the film needs to smooth out a logic:
That is, how the Hong Kong film tune of the Two Heroes War is integrated with this story of the anti-murder investigation that occurred in the mainland.
In the first half of the movie, a large number of wang qianyuan and Wu Yanzu's double sense of maleity is laid out, the former's courage and fortitude, and the latter's evil charm and wisdom, properly fighting the rhythm of three hundred rounds. Even the blunt shots are hinting at the audience (such as the two bloody two males in the video hall that appeared twice), and there may be a little bit of sympathy between the two males.
So, the screw bar came.
The title of the film is called anti-riot, and the background of the mainland also determines that this movie cannot go down the path of both good and evil and heroic pity.
On the one hand, it is the realism of investigating the murder, and on the other hand, it is the freehand of the two male wars. These two styles of xiangke can be perfectly integrated in the land-port co-production, and there are few precedents before - for example, "Red Sea Action" is pure realism, and "Peerless" is pure freehand.
To "Crackdown", both want, but the ability did not keep up, the last out, is a will play double male freehand, one will jump to the investigation of the realism, and finally want to want to have a climactic battle, jump back to the double male freehand.
Why do so many spectators stare at bathhouse battles, bath towels that are as strong as tape? It is because the style is erratic, so that people do not know which standard to use to do substitution (if it is pure freehand, everyone looks cool, the relevant spit will be much less).
Looking further, the result of the twist is a comprehensive flattening.
Realistic.
The specific background of the 90s finally exists as a background. In addition to the proliferation of guns and the frequent occurrence of crimes, there is no real social outlook and the temperament of the times.
Freehand.
At the beginning, the two males stood side by side, and under the premise that the robbers were destined to be doomed to fu fa, Wu Yanzu's aura was destined to be deprived little by little, and the more he went to the back, the weaker he became.
Director Liu Haoliang must have noticed this problem as well, so he forcibly arranged a bathhouse battle to try to regain momentum.
In my opinion, this is actually a good remedy. In the freehand, it is a plus to integrate into the hardcore fight and single out.
But still, the flaws are hard to hide.
The brilliance of a certain paragraph is not enough to change the overall twist and flattening.
3.
Past and present
After revisiting the two "Provincial Hong Kong Flag Soldiers", I kept thinking:
Now, can we still make such a film with both realistic and freehand temperaments?
To a simple introduction to the unfamiliar, "Provincial Hong Kong Flag Soldier 1 and 2" is a classic Hong Kong film in the 80s with the so-called big circle boy as the protagonist - big circle boy, which refers to the group of people who sneaked from the mainland to Hong Kong to engage in criminal activities.
From the current point of view, the production of these two films is obviously very rough, but why, it can do realistic and freehand grasp?
There are real events as the basis for adaptation, compared with "Riot Fighting", two key differences:
First, "Provincial Hong Kong Flag Soldier" has the most real historical appearance and contradicts the times.
Why there is a big circle, simply put, is nothing more than the huge economic gap between the dry port at that time. With the dream of getting rich overnight, many mainlanders went to Hong Kong to pan for gold, and a few did not hesitate to commit numerous crimes.
With such a dramatic conflict in the real world, even the most vicious people, we can empathize with them. In "Crackdown on Violence", we can neither see the individual psychology of the characters, nor can we see the social outlook of the times, and we can talk about empathy in the face of a group of tool people who wear masks and rob for the sake of robbery.
As for the second point, when it comes down, it is necessary to be careful.
The "Provincial Hong Kong Flag Soldier" series, for the sake of money is fierce and ruthless, is a big circle; but for the sake of power, there is also the entire Hong Kong police system.
The fierceness of human nature and the ruthlessness of society are regardless of identity and irrelevant regions. In the end, it comes down to nothing more than three words, people eat people – which is why movies have become the core of the classic.
I'm not saying that "Crackdown" should be filmed like this, in fact, Liu Haoliang vaguely made some similar attempts:
For example, Wang Qianyuan was mistaken for a bandit when he came up, for example, he was overly tired and dreamed that he had become a bandit, and so on. If you think about it further, what is the later fate of Wang Qianyuan's character archetype (Wen Qiang), you may understand the director's arrangements better.
However, this expression of "police and bandits are enchanted", in the current environment, must be a point that can only be understood.
Therefore, the lack of the times, the hollowness of the characters, there is a problem of directorial ability behind this, but from another angle, should we all blame the creators?
Alas, if you continue to talk about it, it seems to be dangerous.
epilogue
Every era has its own movie.
36 years ago, "Provincial Hong Kong Flag Soldiers", before the big circle boy entered Hong Kong and robbed, collectively shouted, "You have to eat beef steak, you have to eat Huanghua" (Huanghua refers to the former Huanghua Prison in Guangzhou), which is a microcosm of that era;
Three years later, "Provincial Hong Kong Flag Soldier 2", the undercover circle that was forced into a dead end, shook back as sir, "even if it is an order from the superior, it may not have to obey", which is the highlight moment that belongs to this marginal group.
36 years later, "Riot Crackdown" tries to tell a story of anti-big circle boy in the style of a Hong Kong-style big circle boy. It has worked hard enough, but it still has not been able to become the darling of this era of "cracking down on criminal syndicates and eliminating evil".
In fact, I would like to ask, how to shoot "Crackdown" in the end, will it really sell out?
I can't think of that answer.