Compared with the new wave of cinema in the late 1970s, Hong Kong films in the 1980s paid more attention to star packaging and element stacking, and the script seemed to be less important, so it was called stifling the creation of "directors and screenwriters" at that time.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Hong Kong filmmakers rose to prominence, and Hong Kong films were more valued by the international film industry.
At this time, Hong Kong filmmakers no longer stuck to the existing themes, and began to explore various types of films, grotesque, cults, horrors, and achieved a golden age of movies with a hundred flowers.
At that time, Hong Kong films were widely disseminated in the form of discs on the mainland, and some films were copied countless times.
Sharing today the classic Hong Kong films that were banned in those years because of "scale" is a childhood memory and a shadow.
The Marginal Man (1981)
Zhang Guoming's "Marginal Man", "Point Point Soldier" and Tsui Ke's "Chaos Trilogy" and Hui Anhua's "Run to the Fury Sea" are considered to be the masterpieces of the new wave of Hong Kong cinema.
The film stars Eddie, Feng Aici, Jin Xingxian, Liu Yali and others.
The protagonist of the story, He Yongchao, was born in a chaotic neighborhood, where it is common to collect protection fees and fights. But he was not willing to do so, so he studied hard to enter the police academy and successfully became a police officer.
However, his first task was to go undercover in the underworld.
He worked very hard, wandering around the neighborhood, hiding his identity, obtaining intelligence, and deeply trusting his superiors.
His girlfriend left him, but he stuck to his principles, kept his identity secret, and insisted on completing his tasks, even if he always lived in the dark.
But the sacrifice of his predecessors made him suddenly change his mind, and he wanted to return to a normal and safe life, after all, "three years after three years, three years after three years", so that he would only enter the endless realm.
Finally, he was given the last mission, however, it always happened the last time...
The ending of the story is shocking, the film expresses something that beats many Hong Kong films of the same type in the same period, and even looking at the 80s, few police films can surpass it.
Point Commander Soldier (1979)
Before "Marginal Man", Zhang Guoming's "Point Finger Soldier" was the pioneering work of the New Wave; starring Wang Zhong, Jin Xingxian, Zhang Guoqiang, and Chen Shidi.
"Point point soldier" is a kind of child's game, who points to who will become a soldier, and vice versa is a bandit.
As the name suggests, the game of police bandits, the protagonist of the story is 2 police and 1 bandit.
The police officer played by Wang Zhong is very capable and solves many cases; the rookie police officer played by Zhang Guoqiang avenges the male protagonist; the gangster is rejected by the school because of the cockfighting eye, so he has a sense of revenge, and the death of his brother makes his revenge more targeted.
"Point Finger Soldier" is considered to be the originator of Chinese realistic police films, the film is full of tension, the violence and madness hidden in the city are extremely serious and frightening, the role created by the actors is very brilliant, Zhang Guoqiang from cowardice to madness, and the hysterical laughter of the bandits makes people shudder.
The New Lamb Doctor (1998)
In 1992, "Doctor Lamb", directed by Lee Xiu-yin and Deng Yancheng, received more than 12 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office, and the role of the butcher on the rainy night played by Ren Dahua was a classic.
6 years after "Doctor Lamb", Ren Dahua continued the frontier and starred in "New Doctor Lamb".
The film is not a sequel, but a brand new story, with Zhong Shaoxiong as the director and Li Cansen, Zheng Haonan, Chen Yingli and other joint performances.
In the film, Ren Dahua plays Grad, a "medical freak" who is committed to the development of drugs and succeeds; but his academic achievements are stolen by professors.
The professor died unexpectedly, he returned to Hong Kong, decided to continue research and development with his girlfriend; the sudden financial assistance made him overjoyed, but he did not expect to be just coveting his girlfriend.
After his girlfriend was insulted, he completely changed and decided to take people as test subjects...
The film's character development was not as successful as the previous one, the box office was far from the previous one, and the plot was a bit delayed, but some ideas were remarkable at the time: for example, Glade's ideal and the final ending were in stark contrast, and everything ended in desperation.
The Code of Conduct (1979)
Fans who like Hu Jinquan's martial arts films must be familiar with Bai Ying and Shi Jian, and the two have also collaborated on a police film called "Rules of Conduct", which is also a New Wave work.
The film is directed by Weng Weiquan, who is good at making documentaries, which is also the first commercial film he directed, but the shooting method is very similar to a documentary, so "Rules of Conduct" is also called "semi-documentary"; it is conceivable that the realist film noir, rough and realism brings the audience a strong sense of oppression.
White Eagle plays a righteous police officer who goes between online and drug dealers, hoping to catch the big drug lord, but in the end it is desperate.
The state has the law of the land, and there are rules of conduct.
In the film, justice is vulnerable in the face of the rules, so insisting on justice will inevitably end in tragedy.
Weak Kill (1994)
"Black director" Deng Yancheng's works, although we are more familiar with his "Lu Xiaofeng Legend" series and "Line of Fire" series, but his 90s film noir is more watchable.
Among them, it is represented by "Weak Killing" and "Dark Rat Confidential Files".
The protagonist of the story is a beautiful but intellectually problematic girl who enters the asylum factory because of family changes, and she meets the kind and optimistic Ah Le.
Just when he thought that life would be better, he began a nightmare of a lifetime, and the demon of the factory had already targeted this mentally handicapped girl.
With dark shots, icy tones, sharp photography and editing, Deng Yancheng used a maverick visual style to spread the panic atmosphere of "the murderer is around" in "Weak Kill".
The heroine is unable to testify in court because of intellectual problems, full of helplessness; and Wu Yi will play the villain who will be red and animalistic and lose his mind; the contrast between strength and weakness makes the film more conflicting.
For Deng Yancheng's kind of films, the visual senses and plot are indeed very impactful, but the evaluation of "The Secret of Hong Kong Cinema" also caused extreme panic and bad taste.
Of course, compared to works such as "Li Wang" and "Eight Immortals Hotel", these are still small witches.
But there is no doubt that these works were once shadows of childhood and indelible memories.