When the two concepts of "policeman" and "fried chicken" are pulled together, the long-lost "pure comedy" of Korean audiences is cooked out of "unprecedented taste".
Extreme Career poster
Time.com Feature "Unprecedented taste, are they police officers or fried chicken shop clerks?"
Borrowing the slogan of the rib fried chicken shop advertising slogan that blurted out in the movie "Extreme Occupation" by the senior squad leader of the anti-drug team (played by Liu Chenglong) in the movie "Extreme Occupation", it is most appropriate to describe the movie "Extreme Occupation". (The original line was "Taste like never before, is this ribs or fried chicken?") ”）
"Policeman" and "Fried Chicken", when the two concepts that are completely unrelated are pulled together, Pei Shiying, a screenwriter who loves to dig out all strange situations, and Director Lee Bingxian, who hates all genre elements but is still grateful for this heterogeneous gratitude, are attracted. The two, who have already cooperated for the second time, can be described as a perfect combination, cooking the long-lost "pure comedy" of Korean audiences into an "unprecedented taste".
It is also this "freshness" that finally mobilized more than 16 million audiences in South Korea to enter the theater, which ranked second in the box office list of Korean film history, second only to the "Battle of Mingliang" with 17 million viewers, but in terms of box office data, "Extreme Occupation" has surpassed "Mingliang Naval Battle" to reach the top of the Korean film history box office.
It is worth mentioning that this is another time that Korean comedies have crossed the 10 million mark after the release of "The Gift of Room Seven" (also starring Yoo Seung-yong) released six years ago. As a pure comedy film without tear-jerking elements, and a small and medium-sized production with no grand theme and huge investment compared to "The Battle of Mingliang", the success of "Extreme Occupation" is more significant.
"Extreme Occupation" Taiwanese version of the Chinese character trailer
What's more interesting is that just half a year before the release of "Extreme Occupation" in South Korea, the Chinese film "Lobster Police", which was born from the first draft of the same script, also landed on the mainland big screen, and the film eventually only received 68 million yuan at the box office, while the total box office of "Extreme Occupation" in South Korea was converted to nearly 800 million yuan. Two versions of a story, such a huge disparity in the box office gap, and where is the difference?
Origins of production: Carry the funny to the end
Unlike "Extreme Class", the anti-drug team of "Lobster Cop" has only four members.
This is consistent with the setting of the first draft script
The first draft script of Extreme Career (screenwriter Moon Chung-il) was selected in the "One Source Multi Use" selection in the "Sino-Korean Story Joint Development Project" in 2015. The copyright owner, Haegrimm, sold the script to two companies in China and South Korea for separate development. Later, there was the Chinese film "Lobster Criminal Police" (starring Wang Qianyuan and directed by Li Xinyun) released on the mainland on June 22, 2018, and "Extreme Occupation", which was officially released in South Korea on January 23, 2018, half a year later.
Director Lee Byung-hyun on the set of "Extreme Career"
After getting the script rights, About Film, the production company of "Extreme Profession", on behalf of Kim Sung-hwan, found director Lee Byung-hyun, who had worked with him at the time of "Speeding Scandal", a bowl of cold noodle kung fu, and the latter was moved. Director Lee described the idea as "this idea must not be given to others, only I can tell an interesting story by directing, and this film will prove myself." ”
Director Lee Byung-hyun has previously participated in the script adaptation of "Speeding Gossip" (2008) and "Sunshine Sister Tao" (2011), debuted as a director through the independent comedy film "Come On, Bingxian", directed many comedy works such as the word-of-mouth comedy "Twenty" (2015), and became famous in the Korean film industry with his ghostly and flexible comedy style.
For "Extreme Career", Representative Kim Sung-hwan and director Lee Byung-hyun have very similar ideas. Representative Kim admitted that they did not have great ambitions at the beginning, but only made up their minds to "carry the funny to the end" and make a pure comedy that will never be "sensational". And "pure comedy" is exactly what Director Li is best at. However, compared with the director's previous small-scale feature films focusing on daily life, the production scale of "Extreme Occupation" is still the first time.
The screenwriter of last year's blockbuster comedy "Perfect Other" wrote "Extreme Profession"
In order to increase the insurance coefficient, Jin also found a screenwriter Pei Shiying who had a cooperation with director Li Bingxian, when Pei's remake comedy "Perfect Other" had just sold well at the box office, becoming a "famous doctor who saved the dead characters and lines" in the industry.
However, her first cooperation with director Li Bingxian on the film "Wind wind wind" (2018) box office and word of mouth is not ideal, but perhaps it is this not successful cooperation that laid the foundation for the success of "Extreme Career" - after all, "Wind Wind" is the first commercial project directed by Li Bingxian that is not his own screenwriter, and how to effectively cooperate with the screenwriter also requires time to run in and learn.
Director Li Bingxian once said in an interview: "'Wind and Wind' is one of my favorite works, and it is also a very hard work, at that time I felt that the next work must make a film that makes everyone, including me, laugh, and then I received the script of "Extreme Occupation". ”
Why did "Extreme Occupation" become a hit at the beginning of the year?
▋There is no strong enemy in the Spring Festival stall
The screening period of "Extreme Occupation" caught up with the six-day long holiday of the Spring Festival with no competitors, and the box office growth rate of millions of daily income, so that the film exceeded 10 million moviegoers in only 9 days, of course, such achievements are not only based on luck.
▋ Alternative Cape Movie (team crime movie)
The senior squad leader of the anti-drug team of the Mapo Police Department in Seoul (played by Yoo Seung-yong) is always half a beat slower on the road to promotion, and at the moment when the anti-drug squad under his leadership is facing dissolution and even a small squad leader position will not be guaranteed, thinking that he may have to do in-house work under the younger generation in the future, the senior squad leader made a major decision, poured out his pension, bought the fried chicken shop on the verge of closure opposite the drug trafficking organization base, and waited for the opportunity to net it all.
The camouflage reconnaissance carried out by the anti-drug team in the fried chicken shop in the film gives the film a peculiar Cape Movie style, also known as the Heist film crime movie subcategory, a group of people plan a certain crime and then perform this task, such as "The Great Thief in the City", "Very Suspect", "Widows Alliance", "High-rise Robbery".
In this team, in addition to the "zombie senior squad leader" who has too bad emotional intelligence luck but can never die, the other four members of the anti-drug team also have distinct personalities: the serious uncle Young Ho (played by Lee Dong Hoon), who is always the first to investigate the case, the police officer Ma (played by Chen Shankui), who is good at cooking and loves to play bao, the police officer Zhang (played by Lee Honi) who is soft on the outside and soft inside, and the passionate newcomer policeman Jae Hoon (played by Kong Ming).
Both Raider League and Assassination are typical Of Cape Movies
Although the business is not outstanding, the small team is very grouped. In order to complete the task, the five policemen who changed their identities at the fried chicken shop all found a new identity that suited them, whether it was a cashier to settle the account or cutting an onion on a plate. In line with the principle of doing one line of love and one line, several people will be fried chicken shop business, but the bigger problem comes again, everyone is busy and there is no time to solve the case... But in any case, this is also part of the mission. Compared with the crazy and cool drag of "Treasure Hunting Alliance" and "Assassination", such a grounded "little people" version of Cape Movie is also interesting.
The chefs in "Extreme Profession" and "Lobster Police" are played by Chen Shankui and Liu Hua respectively
In fact, creating multiple related characters in a movie at the same time is what Pei Shiying is best at. She has written the coming-of-age story of six young girls in the judo department ("Lifting Up King Kong"), "The Wind and the Wind", which tells the grievances of cheating men and women, and "Perfect Others", which exposes the true face and hypocrisy of the world of middle-aged couples in their 40s. "When multiple characters are in a situation, everyone responds differently. And that's where a whole new story is born," Ms. Pei once said of why she loves them.
But correspondingly, "Lobster Police" does not ink more on the story line of "hotel", in addition to Uncle Neng (Liu Hua), who is good at cooking, the other three characters have not interacted with the restaurant in addition to "delivering takeaway", compared with the Korean version, wasted a story line that can create more laughs and vividly portray teamwork.
▋ Living characters
Stills from "Lobster Cop" (Part 1) and "Extreme Profession"
Pretending to open a fried chicken shop to investigate such a fantasy setting can easily become a farce, but a group of small citizens painting the style of the police and fried chicken this very popular food dissolves this unrealistic setting to be closer to reality. None of the actors' acting skills are indispensable.
The five policemen do not have an absolute protagonist, and the entire anti-drug team they form is the protagonist of the film. Each of their characters is fully revealed, and each of them has an impressive legacy. What's more, although they are all policemen, we see them first and foremost as clerks and small citizens of the fried chicken shop, and the whole performance method is not an exaggerated comedy performance, but the closest to reality, as if it is the real little people in the fried chicken shop next door.
Li Honey appeared in the film in "Extreme Occupation"
And the passers-by faces presented by several actors in the film have enhanced the credibility of the role, especially the only female team member Li Heni is completely plain in the camera, whether it is the fried chicken shop plate, or the hand-to-hand combat possessed by the Muay Thai champion, and the kiss shot like an action scene at the end, her full devotion makes Officer Zhang quite present among a group of male characters. It is worth mentioning that actress Lee Ho-ni is not only a winner of Miss Korea, but also a bully girl with a master's degree from Seoul National University.
In contrast, the flower sister played by Yuan Shanshan in "Lobster Criminal Police" only has the deliberate ugliness that is visible to the naked eye, and there is nothing impressive about the rest.
▋ See the real chapter for the lines
To discuss whether the script is excellent, the lines are in the real chapter. There are many amazing lines in "Extreme Occupation", which are both super laugh points and do not forget to follow the plot. And look at "Lobster Cop" again... There is no harm in not comparing.
There is such a scene in the story, the teammates are detained after going deep into the drug dealer's den to investigate the enemy's exposure, and in "Extreme Occupation", the horse police officer is arranged by the team to go to the branch to inspect the work, and when he enters the door, he first tramples on a cockroach, and then conducts a food safety education for the drug dealers who also pretend to be shop assistants.
But in "Lobster Criminal Police", the old man was arranged to appear, without organizational discipline, the temporary intention, let him climb over the wall to eavesdrop under the window of the thief's den, and was discovered before he found a good position, and what was more exaggerated was that his rescue operation was also simple and rude without technical content, And Du Yufei, played by Wang Qianyuan, took a toy gun and directly staged an embarrassing farce with the drug dealers.
"Lobster Cop" is a joke like the detective process
Speaking of the script, one of Pei Shiying's creative habits also reveals the reason for the excellent lines of "Extreme Profession", "Before I write a new play, I will read through it from the first scene, and then constantly revise it, and the lines will be read out loud and modified until they are smooth." ”
▋ Laugh bomb wrapped in realism
When the senior squad leader persuaded his subordinates to open a fried chicken shop together, he said this line: "If you are squeezed out of here anyway, you can only use your pension to open a fried chicken shop, but it is only a little earlier." ”
In fact, the pure comedy "Extreme Profession" is not just funny, it is said that "the highest state of comedy is tragedy", and "Extreme Occupation" is such a work that makes people "laugh and cry". Under the decoration of police bandits, gangsters, and action elements, the little people are forced into a desperate situation, using pension money, with the story of the small universe erupting in the willow dark flower and another village, which seems to make people laugh, but in fact, the background is desolate. It's just that this bitter opening is wrapped in a variety of super laughing bombs, and it doesn't give you any chance to sigh.
In "Lobster Police", this money comes from the mother of the anti-drug group who constantly remarries, and gives generously in order to let her son come to his wedding. Such a personalized hunting plot does not expect the audience to have any emotional resonance.
At the end of "Extreme Occupation", the members of the anti-drug team joined the final battle completely as the staff of the fried chicken shop, and it became a battle for personal livelihood, and this emotion can be felt by every audience and get pleasure from it.
In fact, the most realistic point of the film is the use of "fried chicken". As the most common and popular diet in South Korea, "fried chicken" is like reality, everywhere in the film, and it also proves that it is an irreplaceable prop in the movie, involving spoilers will not say more... But what I have to complain about here is that in "Lobster Police", "Lobster" really has no sense of existence.
N things about Extreme Careers
The highest value of the whole crew of "Extreme Occupation" is the director
-Director Lee Byung-hyun is a veritable "fried chicken powder" who loves fried chicken to the point where he can cook at home. But because of the superstitious saying that "the director eats props will affect the box office", he did not eat fried chicken on the set. What's more interesting is that the director does not like the genre elements of violence, police, and drugs, but their combination with fried chicken is very special and ironic, which is one of the important reasons why he is attracted to this work.
- The birth of "King Rib Fried Chicken" was the inspiration of screenwriter Bae Se-young at the dinner table in Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province. When watching the menu, it will always be difficult to choose the king ribs and fried chicken, so I thought of playing fried chicken with rib flavor, and the big sale of the film also made the fried chicken shop in Suwon popular overnight.
Extreme Class pays tribute to Hero 2
-The end of the film pays tribute to the scene of the Hong Kong movie "Hero Nature 2", followed by the movie interlude "The Year of Love" sung by Cheung Kwok Wing, which can be said to be the only "sensational" point in the film. Many viewers have said that this riotous operation instantly exposed the age of the director.
- The director's bad taste is also reflected in the tribute to the zombie theme of the Korean fire in the past two years, the original script of the high class leader played by Liu Chenglong only has one sentence "zombie high class leader", the result is that the director and Liu Chenglong discussed a zombie bite scene on the set, after all, the zombie drama "Kingdom" starring Liu Chenglong was on fire, and the performance was naturally very hard.
-The film opens with a scene of 16 cars colliding for a week, just in time for the hot weather in South Korea that has not been encountered in decades, and the actors and crew have suffered a lot, which is the best interpretation of the "extreme profession".
-The old Man Jae-hoon played by Kong Ming not only cut a lot of onions on the set, but also did a lot of practice at home, and every day when he returned home from the set, he would cut a few onions, but unfortunately, only a few shots appeared in the movie. In addition, Kong Ming, who showed flying legs in the film, was also a taekwondo player when he was a student, and he also appeared in the film wearing a taekwondo suit.
- Another female character in the film besides Officer Zhang is the kung fu cold-faced female bodyguard, played by supermodel Zhang Zhenxi, who has been debuting for ten years.
- Park Jae-hong, one of the good citizens of South Korea in 2018, played one of the members of a drug trafficking organization in the film. He also took a picture with President Moon Jae-in when he received the commendation last year.
- Liu Chenglong gained 12 kilograms when filming "Nian Li" and was losing weight in order to star in "Extreme Occupation", so he couldn't eat a single fried chicken on the set.
- In order to shoot the action scenes that appeared in the second half of the film, the actors underwent seven weeks of action training before starting up. The picture shows a photo of Li Donghui when he was training.