Inscription: As soon as we walk out of this tiger door, we must forget ourselves and become another person.
Hu Du Men is a Hong Kong film directed by director Shu Qi and starring actors Siu Fong Fong Fong, Yuen Wing Yee, Chen Xiaodong and Li Zixiong, released in Canada on September 6, 1996. Based on the experience of ren Jianhui, a famous Cantonese opera female warrior, the film tells the story of Cantonese opera "famous" Leng Jianxin, who faced life choices and life difficulties after middle age, and won the Best Actress Award at the 33rd Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards in 1996 after its release.
There are many excellent films with drama as the main line throughout the film, Chen Kaige's "Farewell to the King" is dominated by the changes in history of Peking Opera, while the director in "Man, Ghost, Love" takes Hebei Zizi as the main image, but in "Hudumen", Cantonese opera has become the center of the whole film. Compared with the heavy theme explored by the first two films, the content that the film "Hudumen" wants to convey is undoubtedly more relaxed, the film plot is also tragic and joyful, and the humor can also be glimpsed in the heaviness, and the whole film takes the change of the times as the background, projecting a unique "Hong Kong flavor" color in Hong Kong movies.
1. Highlight the change of the times of multiple elements
As a large port for maritime trade in the early years, and later as one of the international financial centers, Hong Kong's unique mixed culture is undoubtedly very eye-catching, and under the collision of multiple cultures, Hong Kong films have always retained their own charm. The 1990s was one of the times of rapid changes in Hong Kong's internal and external environment, and this grand era background was vividly reflected in the film, which also highlighted the "Hong Kong flavor" charm of the film that was different from other drama-themed films.
At the beginning of the film, the director told the audience of the decision of the xinjie family to decide to immigrate through the treatment of the conversation with the sister, and the choice that the sister had to face in the film was actually corresponding to the immigration boom before the return of Hong Kong in the 90s, which also reflected the social psychology of the West in the face of change, Hong Kong people were generally confused and advocated the West.
After that, the conflict between young directors and old actors that appears in the film shows the audience the current situation that Cantonese opera needs to be continuously improved in the new era, on the other hand, as newcomer directors return from studying abroad enter the traditional Cantonese opera industry, there will inevitably be some confrontations and collisions between them and traditional rules.
This kind of expansion of the conflict between the new and the old in the theater industry is actually the current situation faced by the entire Hong Kong society itself at that time, under the continuous development of society, the new Western-style ideas and technologies that follow are constantly invading the old traditional industry in Hong Kong.
In addition, the ideological conflict between Ah Chen and his daughter in the movie also shows the sharper side of the younger generation in Hong Kong. The traditional Cantonese opera performance here is still attracting the attention of thousands of people, and the gay love of the daughter generation over there is also popular, and this extreme picture of the coexistence of the old and the new is also the charm of the city of Hong Kong, and it also injects a unique Hong Kong charm into this film.
In the film, about the conflict between "new and old", the director gave his own thoughts, the director with the help of the cheerful characteristics of the character of the sister, let her constantly mediate between the new and the old, and finally let the two forces of the new and old coexist harmoniously, integrate with each other, which actually represents a certain vision and hope of the director himself, at the same time, this new and old, Chinese and foreign cultural collision and integration, but also makes the film appear Hong Kong characteristics, very clearly presents the unique "Hong Kong flavor" color of Hong Kong films.
2. The dream life intertwined on and off the stage
The term "Hudumen" is originally a special term in Cantonese opera, referring to the side stage exit for Cantonese opera actors to appear, a competent theatrical actor no matter what the mood is under the stage, as long as she steps out of the Hudu Gate, then she is a character on the stage, the real life outside the play has nothing to do with her, she can only be the character played on the stage, and this stage meaning is used in the film by the director.
As a film depicting the experience of legendary characters, "Hudumen" does not deliberately show the ups and downs of the protagonist Leng Jianxin's life, but in the life of the characters, chooses a time point facing choices and various choices. At this point in time, all kinds of complicated and disturbing things in life have gathered in the life of Leng Jianxin, but even if there are many troubles in life, as long as they step out of the Hudu Gate, the Leng Jianxin on the stage still has to play the handsome martial artist who is charming, and the strong contrast between the stage and the upper and lower stages in the film completely shows the intention of the movie called "Hudumen".
The scene that best reflects the meaning of the title in the movie is undoubtedly Leng Jianxin, before he is about to perform on stage, he is suddenly told that there is a biological son in the audience that he personally gave to others for the stage. As a mother, she is inevitably emotionally excited, but as a professional drama actor, the cold sword heart that stepped out of the Hudu Gate can only be the agarwood of splitting the mountain to save the mother on the stage, and it cannot be herself, and the five-flavored and miscellaneous emotions that belong to Leng Jianxin can only be vented in tears through the moment when Agarwood reunites with her mother on the stage, and the director explains to the audience through the intersection of realistic emotions and dramatic emotions in this scene: "Hudumen" The heavy meaning contained under the three words: At the same time, it also shows Leng Jianxin's strong sense of belonging to the stage and the great sacrifice he has made for the stage as a theatrical actor.
The final ending of the film is undoubtedly satisfactory, although the protagonist Leng Jianxin has experienced changes in the world, but she did not go abroad with the support of her family, but chose to continue to stay in Hong Kong, did not give up the drama she loved most in her life, such an ending is undoubtedly the director's own last warm choice, but also shows the director's own deep attachment to these traditional industries and the homeland of Hong Kong.
epilogue:
The film "Hudumen", the story content takes the experience of the protagonist Leng Jianxin as the clue, with Cantonese opera as the main element, showing the audience leng Jianxin as a famous Cantonese opera artist, the scenery of unlimited skills on stage, and the various joys and difficulties of real life offstage, but the film does not only tell these.
The three words "Hudumen" invisibly run through the entire movie, and people often say: "Life is like a drama, and drama is like life." This is especially true for the protagonist Leng Jianxin, "Hudumen" for her not only means the stage, but also the transformation of the battlefield of life and the change of life and events. In fact, between life and drama, there is only a tiger door, crossing the tiger door means wholehearted delivery, do not think about the past and the future that have been disturbed, singing the current drama is the most important.