In the era when everyone exclaimed "Hong Kong films are dead", fortunately we have a galaxy image.
As the core of the galaxy image, Du Qifeng, Wei Jiahui and others are indispensable, they pay attention to teamwork, with excellent and ingenious stories, extremely ingenious visual language and elusive narrative methods to concoct a series of "noir films", including "Dark Flower", "Gunfire", "Dark War", "PTU" and so on.
The so-called film noir, which different people have different understandings, is generally believed to refer to the use of many very traditional and non-traditional forms and audiovisual language to create human themes. And Du's galactic style has also become a topic of discussion among movie fans.
However, in the release of "Death Gold" in 2011, the audience's inherent impression of the Galaxy Image, many people felt that Du Qifeng had entered the bottleneck of creation, and even some people criticized "Galaxy Image, Losing Imagination", and the Douban score was only 7.3 points, just passed.
However, looking back, this movie still carries the Galaxy style of Hong Kong films, and it is also a very classic Du's "film noir" in the past decade. Next, the author will be uneven, deeply interpret the uniqueness of the film's narrative style, and talk about why this movie is classic.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > multi-line parallel narrative highlights dramatic tension</h1>
In 1980, Du Qifeng filmed his first film "Bishui Hanshan Death Gold", in order to commemorate the 30 years of entry into the industry, he named it "Death Gold", replacing the three roles of policeman, underworld gangster and fund manager with three roles of soldiers, bandits and dart masters in the martial arts film "Bishui Hanshan Death Gold".
Du Sir no longer sticks to the themes of underworld, gunfights, police bandits, etc., but puts the theme on the "stock market". Films, Bazin said, are "spices up time and saves it from its own decay." As an omniscient point of view, the director walks freely in the time and space of the narrative, with the help of parallel multi-threaded narrative, a group of actors who perform well, reverse the cause, dismantle the permutations and combinations, and finally return from "three" to "one", which is a film that allows the audience to feel the endless possibilities.
The film is clearly linked together by means of a murder case, and the dark line is because the stock market has fallen, because of the conflict between human nature and money, "tying" all unrelated characters together.
At the beginning, the first line of the movie tells the story of the policeman Zhang Zhengfang accompanying his wife to see the house, the wife insisting on buying a house, and Zhang Zhengfang escapes on the grounds of work.
With the appearance of the movie name, the black curtain, accompanied by brisk music, from left to right, turn to the tall buildings of the big city,
Moving to the next line, fund manager Teresa is holding a morning meeting, because of poor performance, selling high-risk investment products to the mother who does not understand anything.
One day, the financial crisis struck, the stock market fell, the original bank of zhong yuan, which operated loan sharks, raised ten million to prepare for usury, during which the other party on the phone always changed, Zhong Yuan had no choice but to put five million here in Teresa, and did not check in the bill, and the mobile phone was accidentally left in the bank. Teresa is about to deliver the left-behind mobile phone to Jongwon and chases him to the parking lot, where Jonghara is dead.
At the same time, the brisk music sounded again, turning from left to right again to the empty camera, and the tall buildings lined up, entering the story line of the three-legged leopard.
The third line is du sir's underworld theme, mainly based on the story of the three-legged leopard's righteousness and raising guarantee fees for his brother, but in fact, the director uses flashbacks to explain the causes and consequences of Zhong Yuan's death to the audience.
In the process of advancing the story, when the three-legged leopard was posing for the big brother's birthday banquet, Zhong Yuan appeared again to celebrate the birthday and issued a business card, and the person who had died in the first half suddenly appeared again, so that the audience understood that the timeline of the three-legged leopard was pre-positioned, but it gave the audience a sense of suspense and continued to watch with curiosity.
As the three-legged leopard encountered difficulties in raising money to guarantee, he found his former brother, the bulging-eyed dragon. The day before the stock market fell, the bulging eye dragon operated illegally, the account was blocked, and had to borrow money to turn around, at this time, the three-legged leopard flipped to the business card sent by Zhong Yuan at the banquet.
At this moment, all the timelines began to converge and close.
It turned out that the bulging eye dragon borrowed Zhong Yuan's money, so Zhong Yuan withdrew money, and the frequent calls received in the middle of the withdrawal of money were made by the bulge dragon.
At this time, the three-legged leopard was ready to grab money in the car, but there was a leopard in front of the tiger, and two "tigers" were ready to grab five million cash, fighting each other and killing each other, and the three-legged leopard took the cash effortlessly and easily cleared the suspicion of murder.
After the timeline is closed, focus on the climactic part of the show – how are these three people prepared to fight for money? - Start accelerating.
Teresa worked absent-mindedly, always thinking about the five million cash in the cabinet, so that the audience also anxiously waited for her to "fish" for the five million cash, and finally under the pressure of performance, resigned, taking away five million cash;
Zhang Zhengfang continued to investigate the case, and after experiencing life and death, he accidentally learned that someone wanted to buy the house that his wife had just borrowed, and could earn 500,000 cash;
The three-legged leopard helps the bulging eye dragon to invest, unintentionally bet, accidentally gets five million cash, he goes to buy the cigars that the big guys often smoke, and walks on the street;
In the end, the three-legged leopard who chose money and Teresa passed by, while the Zhang Zhengfang family, who hesitated to make money, became frozen, leaving suspense and making people think.
"Deadly Gold" is methodically arranged between the various branches, Du Sir is intertwined with very clever emergencies, and the dramatic tension is compact and solid, driving the audience's anxiety and tension, and finally the happiness. If the traditional linear narrative is used, the story will not be so flattering, nor will it interact with the audience, and it will lose the fatalistic theme of "life wrapped in fate in front of money".
< h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > audiovisual language of documentaries is close to infinite reality</h1>
Dusir's films have always depicted gangsters, police bandits and other themes, far from the audience, and in "Death Gold", Dusir puts his perspective on the ordinary people, and uses the audiovisual language of documentaries to focus on the ukiyo-e under money.
According to screenwriter Huang Jinhui, before filming, he interviewed many bankers to enrich the material, and when the fund manager in the film "Death Gold" sold the fund to a retired woman, the important part of the repeated recording was inspired by the real scene.
The film draws on the material and life, and is higher than life, presents the authenticity of life, faces the real problems, and has critical power.
As the screenwriter said, this plot feels irrelevant to the main plot when the audience first looks at it, which consumes the patience of the audience, but in retrospect, it can be understood why the record is focused.
The aunt said "clearly and clearly", the unusual tone change showed her worries and ignorance, and the constant repetition of the dialogue recording can be described as realistic to the bone. When asked why he invested in a fund that was higher than his own risk, he just said "I just want to make more", like everyone in the market, the audience was like a needle in the haystack, giving the audience a sympathetic expectation.
The documentary-like approach requires a cold-eyed record of everything, and there is a sense of oppression, and the clear and cold style is fully displayed. And the audience can only choose to accept this reality.
In the opening scene of "Deadly Gold", in the process of the police investigating the murder, Du Qifeng deliberately avoided the investigation of the case, but focused on depicting the neighbors around him, there were cooks, magazines, quarrels, one by one, they all only cared about themselves, Zhang Zhengfang finally glued the landlord and tenant who were arguing together with tape, which was quite ironic. A few simple shots depict the indifference of this society.
And the story can be vividly presented in the fact that the details are recorded very realistically. For example, in the cramped conference room, the boss held a morning meeting, praised the colleagues with good performance, encouraged the colleagues with poor performance, but did not ask Teresa, this invisible pressure, can only make her work overtime, all kinds of phone calls, and even the security guards who watch the building have to urge her to leave work.
To the three-legged leopard story line, it is a true display of the declining underworld: the three-legged leopard frequently puts on a birthday banquet for the big brother to collect gifts, but everyone is at the end of the road, and they all come here to issue business cards like Zhong Yuan; the three-legged leopard raises a guarantee for the brother, can only play a rogue to sit in someone else's shop to ask for money, and finally just guaranteed out of the West Kowloon Police Station, and has to be arrested by East Kowloon, which has some absurd implications.
Quasi-documentary techniques are infinitely close to reality, extracting trivial and bland content in scenes such as banks and underworlds, Du Sir has been meticulously crafted, and then laid the groundwork for their life situation, from the surface emotions to the side of inner anxiety, saving more dramatic emotions, and then detonating in the ending.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > symbolic characters to explore "fatalism."</h1>
In general, Du Qifeng's films are thematic first, exploring fatalism, whether it is a story or a character, it is all in the service of the film's theme expression, and this film is no exception. The so-called fate is the impermanence of fate, and this feeling of nothingness has always been reflected in all of Du Qifeng's films.
Thanks to the superb acting skills of the actors, Du Sir has created a symbolic character, extracting personality complexity from the reality of life, without guidance or interference to everyone's fate, still exploring "fatalism", enriching the various relationships between money and people in reality.
Teresa is dedicated, but in order to rush the performance, she also has to do something ignorant. When luring big mom to introduce investing in high-risk funds, she was restless, and Du Qifeng used the scene of brewing coffee to perform, but in the end, she "induced" big mom to participate.
In the end, she has not been able to open the cabinet with five million cash, the key is constantly vibrating, the side of her inner struggle, but also led the audience to fluctuate, and finally succumbed to the greedy nature, resigned and took away five million cash.
The three-legged leopard is righteous, interceding in various places, especially when playing with the grumpy old brother Huang Rihua, the old brother of the waste paper, the three-legged leopard can't think of any good way, can only help while asking for money, fortunately, Sen Ge attaches importance to the friendship of the past and takes out 20,000 guarantees. When Liu Qingyun shows the characteristics of this character, he walks and talks very appropriately, especially the natural action of wild blinking, and there is no confidence in doing things. He was a little "stupid", a little "stunned", and even more out of place in a society where "having money is the most important", and finally got five million in cash, and there was a fate arrangement in which good people had good rewards.
Comparatively speaking, Zhang Zhengfang's treatment is somewhat flat, but it reflects "making hard money", and the dialogue with the last suicidal old man reveals the hardships of the lives of civilians, and the attitude of wanting to live and work in peace and contentment gives Zhang Zhengfang a kind of enlightenment, reconcile with his wife, and prepare to buy a house together.
And his wife has a small citizen mentality that chases the wind: seeing the rise of the property market, wanting to catch up with this outlet, catching up with the financial crisis and wanting to exit, and finally when they are ready to buy a house together, they unexpectedly learn that the house they have just loaned has been willing to buy with an extra 500,000 cash, as the line says, "Morning and afternoon, it is really hell and heaven."
In addition, the sentient beings around money are also very detailed and profound. For example, the role of the bulging-eyed dragon has some meaning of "rich and noble in danger", for money even life, first go to buy futures to prepare to turn over, urge the three-legged leopard to buy "fall", did not expect the three-legged leopard to buy "liter", the back and forth of the two scenes, the unintentional collision of the three-legged leopard, the careful destruction of the bulge dragon, so that the story added a layer of black humor, but also brought a hint of ridicule. And Zhong Yuan, who lends usury, even if he holds five million in hand, even the free coffee of the bank will not be missed, and the city servants will cut the door.
Du Qifeng said: "Life is impermanent, because there are many things in life that cannot be grasped, cannot be controlled, and are sudden. So I hope that after watching my movie, the audience must live in the moment and cherish the present moment. ”
Diligent work can't change their destiny, honest morality can't change their fate, Teresa and the three-legged leopard are flown to change their lives, fire the boss, smoke a cigar, and they pass by the streets.
So, how will Zhang Zhengfang choose?
In the face of the sudden 500,000, will he sell the house he just borrowed? Or waiting for the price and selling for appreciation? Or do you just live in it?
Du Qifeng did not give a definite answer, throwing the question to us as the audience, how will we choose?
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line"> </h1>
The film theme about money and human nature is very serious, coupled with Du Qifeng's "black", I did not expect to treat this movie as a game about money, with exquisite multi-line parallel narrative, with a documentary-like approach to bring out the complexity of society and human nature, but also with a little bit of black humor, it can be said that it is a very "different" film noir.
The narrative of "Deadly Gold" is very smooth, and it is worth praising whether it is the story, casting, soundtrack, and theme. In the face of money, will you be coerced? Therefore, "Deadly Gold" with a unique narrative style is also a classic production, and it should have its place in the works of Galaxy Image!