Recently, because of Mango Tai's "All the Way to Adulthood", Xu Jinjiang quickly jumped into the traffic "old student".
However, why is Xu Jinjiang in the show not at all different from what we remember?
At every turn, he made a row of comparisons in front of the camera, self-reflection, and then began to "tears of the fierce man".
Sensitive, delicate, weak and helpless, he even gave himself a nickname "Little Sheep"...
Well, let's just think there are little sheep in the world that look like big bad wolves.
Before that, most people remember Xu Jinjiang as this:
such:
And this:
In fact, there are many things about Xu Jinjiang that you don't know.
For example, he is a mixed-race child who worked as a model and night bar singer in order to make a living;
Is a real artist, graduated from the Guangmei Sculpture Department, also studied Chinese painting, and is a closed disciple of the master of fine arts Guan Shanyue;
Love stories are also full of romance and strangeness.
Many years ago, he used a paintbrush to outline the appearance of his ideal partner, and immediately proposed after meeting a girl who collided with 99% of the girls in the painting.
And, he starred in this Hong Kong "Galaxy Impression" style establishment work -
The Birth of a Word
Director: Wei Jiahui
Writers: Wei Jiahui / Situ Jinyuan / Zou Kaiguang
Starring: Liu Qingyun / Wu Zhenyu / Li Ruotong / Xu Jinjiang / Zhang Daming / more...
Genre: Comedy / Action / Crime
Country/Region of Production: Hong Kong, China
Language: Cantonese / Mandarin Chinese
Release: 1997-03-14 (Hong Kong, China)
Runtime: 90 minutes
In 1996, Du Qifeng, together with Wei Jiahui, You Dazhi and others, founded Galaxy Image Film Production Company.
At this time, Wu Yusen went to Hollywood, Xu Ke sometimes missed his hand, Jackie Chan's works became more and more international, UFO, Liu Zhenwei, Er Dongsheng stagnated, the Hong Kong film industry was exhausted, and only Chow Sing Chi and Wong Kar-wai were still supporting the overall situation.
Seeing that Hong Kong films are about to be depressed from now on, the emergence of the "Galaxy Image" has made the Hong Kong people's eyes light up, and the building will fall.
In 1997, at this point in time when Hong Kong movies were mentioned, the pioneering work of "Galaxy Image", "The Birth of a Word", came out.
The film is directed and written by Wei Jiahui, produced by Du Qifeng, and starring Liu Qingyun, Wu Zhenyu, Xu Jinjiang, Li Ruotong and so on.
The film breaks the genre rules of traditional Hong Kong gangster films at all levels, with a distinct style: abandoning non-linear narrative structures, adopting virtual assumptions, exploratory structures of segmented narratives, various experimental photography styles, and unconventional character settings...
In layman's terms, if you only watch the first thirty minutes of this film, you will scold "Silly Bi", but when you finish watching it, you will exclaim "Sleepy Hollow, Niu Bi".
The protagonists of the film are five unknown gangsters.
How many people have not seen the scriptures? Among them, the three people who can be named are Dabao, A Cat, and A Dog. Well, this is a movie about "cats and dogs".
At the beginning of the film, the first shot is a close-up of the dial of a TUDOR watch, remember this watch, it will be in the limelight in this film.
Then, it was Liu A Dog, who sold wreaths, looking at the palms.
How the specific fortune teller gave him nonsense, we don't know, we don't want to ask, because the film cuts out the same sound here, until the end of the film five minutes to give the answer.
Then, Ah Dog met Dabao, the old Lai who owed his friend a thousand yuan.
He threatened to take A Dog to "dry tickets big" and go to Zhanjiang on the mainland to sell cars.
"32 years old is a threshold for men, you 32 and I am 32, Bruce Lee died at 32 years old." You will be a dragon or a snake in your next life, just see if you have the kind to go to Zhanjiang with me. ”
32-year-old is not a man's pass Pi Ge does not know, anyway, Pi Ge only knows that A dog is not willing to only sell wreaths, but he also does not want to follow this big treasure that will only brag.
Dabao saw that The dog was not tempted and began to show off his wealth.
"You see me, I'm wearing a Rolex, the glasses are Cartier, the shirt is Armani, the pants are Versace, and even the panties are Clavin Klein."
Sure enough, Ah Dog was moved.
In this way, Dabao relied on his three-inch uncorrupted tongue and steely cheeky skin to gather seven people to form a "century combination" that claimed to be invincible in the world, and also claimed to have attracted the investment of the Black Star Gang.
As a result, after this "century combination" ate and massaged, they began to pretend to be dead and fleeing, so they did not officially start drying it, and they were hunted down because they did not pay for massage.
Several people actually hit and killed Dabao when they drove away!!!
And that's just the beginning of the film's black humor.
The remaining six people were "leaderless", and none of them had any opinion, so they arbitrarily decided to go to Zhanjiang and then hang up one by one.
There are those who sit on a yacht and suddenly fall into the sea and drown; there are those who die suddenly in the process of talking about the wind and moon; and there are those who are shot and killed by the Black Star Gang..... Anyway, it's all hung up.
When you think the film is over, the film returns to the front, and Dabao lures Ah Dog to Zhanjiang.
Here, the TUDOR watch appears again.
However, this time, Ah Dog was like a changed person, unusually firm and assertive.
When Dabao showed off his wealth, he was no longer impressed, but directly ripped off the name tag of Dabao's whole body, leaving him only a pair of CK underwear.
Oh, this is a rebirth?
NO!
Students who have read a lot of films should be very familiar with this plot setting.
Yes, it's a segmented narrative exploration structure that has been used in many movies.
For example, Kieslowski's "Blind Hit by Mistake", Tom Tikwe's "Lola Run", the classic old movie "Little Street" of the 1980s, and so on.
It's just that in a Hong Kong gangster movie, this is the first time it appears.
In the second paragraph, Ah Dog did not go to Zhanjiang with Dabao, but followed Ah Cat to Taiwan.
This time, relying on his own righteousness and firm will, he mistakenly became the leader of Taiwan's underworld, which is also the "birth of a word" referred to in the title of the film.
In the last five minutes, the film returns to the scene where the fortune teller began, and this time the sound is restored.
What the fortune teller said was:
"You have two choices, either to go to the mainland or to Taiwan, you must be careful, you may blossom and become rich, or you may be completely annihilated, but this time you will die." If you get by, you won't even look the same, and you will reach another level. But the problem is not this, taiwan is not a problem, the problem lies in your heart. Your complexion is so messy that you don't even know what you're doing. The failure of wealth lies in whether you can find yourself, understand? ”
At this point, the problem is solved.
The two narratives correspond to the total annihilation of the army and the blossoming of wealth.
Reconnect with the whole movie: released in 1997, the watch face is repeated, the mainland, Taiwan, find yourself,
Admittedly, this theme is common in films of the same period, but the brilliance of "The Birth of a Word" is not its theme, but its exploratory nature.
The protagonist is anti-hero, the plot is anti-climactic, the metaphorical symbols can be interpreted in multiple ways, the visual effects are exaggerated and deformed, the space scheduling is unconventional, and a variety of bipolar shots...
This highly recognizable element has been used to the extreme in subsequent works of Galactic Impressions such as "Gunfire", "Dark Flower", "Dragon City Years", and "Tree Trick".
Although "The Birth of a Word" was released at the box office dismal that year, Du Qifeng openly admitted its value: the entrepreneurship of "Galaxy Image" should have started with "The Birth of a Word".
1997 is also the node of Hong Kong cinema's transformation from prosperity to decline, and "The Birth of a Word" that swims against the current has saved the face of Hong Kong films at this time in a decent way.
Since then, the galaxy has been reflected, and the masterpieces have been one after another.
Compared with Zhou Xingchi, Xu Ke, Liu Zhenwei, Wang Jing and others who have been nibbling on the old book, it is no wonder that Galaxy Image can thrive in the decline trend of Hong Kong films.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Tong Yunxi
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