"Riot Removal" belongs to such a category of movies for me: I know that it will not be too good, I can expect some of its hot bridges and some uninteresting processing before watching it, and I know that Douban will not be higher than 7 points, but I still want to watch it.
The result is indeed similar to what I imagined, the first half is really good, and even makes me have the illusion of "Hong Kong films return to the soul"; The second half immediately knocked me back to reality: Oh no, that's all it takes.
Although the film tried hard to use various elements to make me feel like "dreaming back to the 90s", the overly flamboyant color palette almost erased the texture of the set and props, making me feel like I was in a certain escape room, and everything was cruel and had a little sense of drama.
However, the setting of breaking into the city, bombarding the police, and bombing the streets is still quite emotional, especially when all this happens in mainland cities, although it is fictional Changpu, Gyeongju and other places, but it is still exciting.
The scene where Azu is pulled to the wilderness to execute the execution at the end of the film is also rare, and this kind of "deathbed" scene is even more difficult to see in the mainland, except for "Drug War" and "Night Train", I can't think of it for a while.
The role settings of Zhang Falcon and Zhong Cheng, the police bandits, strive to move closer to the style of "Blood Two Heroes", but unfortunately there is only the shell of "two heroes duel", and there is no soul of double male duels. The background and personality of both characters have a sense of ambiguity, and like the other side characters, the sense of tool is too strong. The reason why Azu played a bandit in "New Police Story" back then was impressive, in addition to being handsome, but also because he was a complete character, with psychological activities and background explanations. And this time in "Riot Removal", everything about Zhang Falcon is very vague, why he became a bandit, how to spend the money, and even why he inexplicably fell in love with the woman who played in Spring and Summer, all of them did not explain at all.
Wang Qianyuan played decently, for some reason, he seems to have been sealed by the role of "Huazi" since "Rescue Mr. Wu", almost all the roles are ruthless to kill who (and then nothing else), the follow-up roles are obviously playing the police, but I always want to call the police to arrest him first. There is no sense of adaptation at all in the early years of "Empty Mirror" and "Steel Piano", before he chased the character to run, now the character chases him to run.
Chunxia played actually quite well, although the role is inexplicable, but her own temperament is quite compatible with this role, there is a sense of vulnerability and a little stubbornness. Chunxia's acting skills are also high and low, it's not her creating roles, it's the roles that fit her. The previous "Mr. Monster" made me grit my back teeth, and "Love Song 1980" made me have high expectations, but in fact, the performance of spring and summer is not so much related to the quality of the movie itself.
Other characters are really hammered, Wei Shiya has no charm under the Mandarin dubbing, and several other policemen seem to be born for dedication: "After catching the thief, I will take you to eat the noodles I have grown from snacks to big noodles", this kind of line can't be said without dying. (It can also be seen that the screenwriter's ability to write dialogue is also quite lacking, it is simply an old terrier king)
As for the last bath fight scene, it can only be regarded as decent, the figures of the two are the highlights, but I can't boast anything else about the action design except "fists to the flesh"...
