After a few days of fighting, the May 1st show has basically become a foregone conclusion, and the box office reputation of "On the Cliff" has soared, and it is not surprising that the champion is none other than it.
To say that the most regrettable is Wang Jing's "Chasing the Tiger and Catching the Dragon", the lineup is so luxurious, the box office has broken through 100 million, and the Douban score has dropped from the opening 5.9 to 5.6, which is a great disappointment.
01, five movie emperors + a group of familiar faces
One of the most obvious features of Wang Jing's films is the luxurious lineup, no matter what the theme, the stars come first, which is also his magic weapon for many years, after all, it is the right way to attract the audience to the theater first.
"Chasing the Tiger and Catching the Dragon" is obviously the five major film emperors, but Xuanfa is the four major film emperors, although Zheng Zeshi has been the existence of supporting roles in recent years, but his film emperor has a high gold content, and has won the film emperor trophy twice with "Why Me" and "Three Injured Policemen".
Following "Chasing the Dragon", Zheng Zeshi played the role of Lard Boy again, acting as Leiluo's rent collector, with obvious role changes and large performance space.
The remaining Liang Jiahui, Gu Tianle, Wu Zhenyu and Lin Jiadong are regular guests of Wang Jing's films, and they are also the four film emperors of the film.
Liang Jiahui once starred in "Money Empire" as Xu Legong, that is, Lü Le, so this time he did not want to repeat himself, so he played lame Hao, in order to have both form and god, put a lot of effort, but helplessly too little drama, acting skills can not be played, stone hammer tool people.
Coincidentally, Wu Zhenyu once played "Lü Le" in "O Chronicle Triad Archives", and this time he returned to his old business effortlessly and contributed to a high level of acting skills.
Lin Jiadong and Gu Tianle are black and white, fighting crime and corruption, the brotherhood between the two is well shaped, Lin Jiadong is responsible for the action, Gu Zai is obviously in a much worse state, but think about how many movies he made, in order to build a school, it is also relieved.
Then Jiang Haowen, the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, this role is against Huang Mou of "Money Empire", but Huang Mou's role transformation is more convincing, after all, he was wearing a green hat.
At the same time, there are a large number of familiar faces in the film, such as "Aobai" Wang Juntang, "Cheng Lingsu" Gong Cien, Guo Zhenghong, played by Wang Qi in "In Search of Qin", Lin Zishan, Yin Yangming, director Huang Baiwen, and TVB Xiaosheng Huang Haoran.
Although they have few scenes, they can instantly recall our good memories of Hong Kong films and Hong Kong dramas.
02, box office failure
The film was originally called "Money Empire 2: The Four Detectives", then renamed "Money Empire: Battle of the Pinnacle", and finally decided to use "Chasing the Tiger and Catching the Dragon", which is nothing more than feeling that the IP of "Money Empire" is not as good as "Chasing the Dragon".
In fact, the movie is basically a remake of "Empire of Money" 12 years ago, adding the film emperor, adding the lame link, the characters have become more, the system has become wider, but the quality has declined, it is better to simply call it "Anti-Corruption Storm Chasing the Tiger and Catching the Dragon".
"Chasing the Tiger and Catching the Dragon" failed at the box office, there are many reasons, first of all, the theme is old, the remake has no new ideas, the IP of "Chasing the Dragon" has been exhausted by Wang Jing, "Chasing the Dragon 2", "The Billion Inspectors of the Dragon Chasing Fan", "The Boss Lady" has long been aesthetic fatigue.
Then there is the confusion of the story logic, the details are pale and weak, and gu Tianle's girlfriend in the film disappears directly after being violated, and there is no explanation; the members of the ICAC have experienced leadership sacrifices and a large number of attritions, no one has flinched, and no one has thought about whether to continue to persist;
In the second half, Lame Hao and Xu Le were arrested, and the process was too easy, basically there was not much resistance, so that the ending was too flat.
Finally, there is a change in the ending, we all know that Lu Le finally successfully landed, but in the movie, he was arrested.
Although it is clear that this is for censorship, and that changes have been made in the past in "Infernal Affairs", "Underworld", and "Discipleship", it is still difficult to accept.
The highlight of the film is also the crippled Hao's men besieging the members of the IcIC, and the film emperor Lin Jiadong became the action bearer, and it was more tragic to be hacked to death. As for the other aspects of modesty, mediocre.
03. Why did Wang Jing die in the film?
The four major families and the four inspectors must have imagined that their deeds would later become a major killer material for Hong Kong movies.
The story also begins in 1991, when Mak Dang-hsiung's "Lame Howe" was released and sold for 38.7 million Hong Kong dollars, thus kicking off the prelude to the Hong Kong gangster film.
In the same year, the following works were released one after another, and the audience is familiar with the upper and lower parts of "The Legend of Leiluo" and the "Dragon and Tiger Brothers of the Four Families" jointly joined by Lu Liangwei Zheng Zeshi.
Wang Jing supervised the production of "The Biography of Leiluo" for the Xiang brothers that year, and at the same time, he also filmed a "Lame Hao" "Fan Wai": "The Legend of Xiajie", which is also his entrepreneurial work, inviting Ye Zilin as the starring role, and also pulling "Lame Hao" Lü Liangwei, "Lard Boy" Wu Mengda, and "Yan Tong" Qin Pei over.
Time came to 1992, the theme of "Gangster Xiong" is still hot, "The Four Detectives", "The Legend of the Blue River", "Temple Street Twelve Young", "Casino Tycoon" were released in a pile, but the response was not very enthusiastic, and this wave of enthusiasm was extinguished.
Since then, about every ten years or so, Wang Jing has always made a heroic film, namely "O Chronicle Triad Archives" in 1999, "Money Empire" in 2009 and "Chasing the Dragon" in 2017.
Wang Jing is a businessman, "O's Triad Archives" and "Money Empire" failed at the box office, naturally there will be no sequels, but "Chasing the Dragon" has made him gain box office and praise, and he certainly will not waste this IP.
Usually an IP, Wang Jing will definitely squeeze it to the end until it is completely abandoned, just like the "Macau Storm" series of that year.
But Wang Jing seems not to accept defeat this time, and the defeat of "Chasing the Dragon 2" and "Chasing the Tiger and Catching the Dragon" did not make him give up, because "Chasing the Dragon 3" has been successfully filed, and Gu Tianle and Zhen Zidan are starring and are in preparation.
04. Continue to support Hong Kong films
For Wang Jing, I believe that many students love and hate deeply, and sometimes they know that his new movie is not much new, but they will still watch it.
One is to go to the luxurious lineup, the other is that he has been brilliant, and the films he has cooperated with Stephen Chow, Jet Li and Jackie Chan are classics, and there are also good films such as the "God of Gambler" series, "Super School Overlord", "Supreme Supreme" and so on.
The support for Wang Jing and Hong Kong films is actually our memories of the past Hong Kong films, and it is a tribute to the youth in the video hall.
Although "Chasing the Tiger and Catching the Dragon" is disappointing, there are still many Hong Kong films worth looking forward to in 2021, such as "Seven People Band" by seven directors, "Wind Forest Volcano" for several years, "Mermaid 2" by Stephen Chow, and "Sunny Years" by Chow Yun Fat;
Chen Musheng's posthumous work "Anger and Serious Case", Gu Zai's film version of "Searching for Qin" and science fiction film "Tomorrow's War", Xu Anhua's "First Burning Incense", Zheng Baorui's "Wisdom Teeth" and so on.
Of course, we can't forget Weng Ziguang's "When the Wind Rises Again", although it is also the theme of the Gangster Film, but at least it is more reliable than Wang Jing's "Chasing the Tiger and Catching the Dragon". (Author: 11)