Recent Hong Kong movies have one word:
difficult.
First of all, Wu Mengda, Liao Qizhi, these old drama bones have passed away, followed by the bankruptcy of the 36-year-old UA theater line.....
The ensuing blows have made "Hong Kong movies dead" rise again.
Unlike the previous grumbling emotions, this time it is even louder...
But it also corresponds to that saying that only at the lowest point do you know who your friends are.
A person, an interview, made Sir, an old Hong Kong film fan, tear up again.
Sure enough, for so many years, I didn't talk to the wrong person.
Don't be afraid to offend people.
Today's discussion of "Hong Kong movies are dead or not" has become a sensational "tearing game".
Some time ago, two "Hong Kong KOLs" had a century debate (tearing) on this topic.
△ Image from: Hong Kong 01
Xiao Ruoyuan, known as the "God of Lights" (also the screenwriter of "Lame Hao" and "The Emperor of Shanghai" that year), made a statement at the Clubhouse that "Hong Kong movies are dead".
In other words, Hong Kong's film industry has no future.
Hong Kong films, which have lost their industrial base, are no longer what they used to be, and the chances of the film industry recovering in the future are equal to zero.
Sure enough, as soon as this statement came out, the first person who was excited was a "former industry insider".
An Internet celebrity named Youxuexiu.
The post-90s who switched from actor to video platform first argued with Xiao Ruoyuan on the clubhouse, and then made a film response afterwards:
Even if the golden age of Hong Kong passes, I will not remember the past and will break out of my own way.
At first, the two discussed what was still a business exchange.
Soon, the atmosphere was not right.
Xiao Ruoyuan yin and yang weirdly "advised" young people - shooting online videos is not making movies, that is "cooking rice boys" (over the family).
Youxue Xiu sneered at Xiao Ruoyuan: The world has changed, and the old man does not know how to pretend to understand.
On the one hand, the predecessors who rely on the old and sell the old, the other is the fledgling stunned Qingqing, under the incitement of various media, the two have become a topic in the city for a while.
Then.
A real filmmaker suddenly spoke.
In the interview, the host talked about "whether Hong Kong movies are dead", he did not name names, but replied in a cold tone:
The gentleman would do business, but didn't know movies
He makes money from movies, but is not a person who works on movies.....
He also advised young people not to be misled by these people, which is nonsense.
See this.
Many fans know that his name is Du Qifeng.
This is very Du Qifeng.
What is even more Du Qifeng is that this word reached the ears of the "perpetrator" Xiao Ruoyuan, as if a sword was sealed in the throat, and instead of refuting it like to You Xuexiu, he made a short film and said in a gentle tone that he was the best director in Hong Kong (in the video he gave a positive reply).
Swearing doesn't necessarily require courage.
But "scolding" people to scold others to serve, and even praise in turn, this is his confidence.
And Du Qifeng has always been the child who punctured the emperor's new clothes.
Du Qifeng loves to scold people, and is well known in the Hong Kong film industry.
Andy Lau once commented:
"A natural swearing machine."
When filming "Heavenly Love", Du Qifeng was the supervising producer.
Every time after filming a motorcycle racing scene and removing his helmet, Andy Lau will always subconsciously stroke the squashed hair.
Once, twice, three times, Du Qifeng finally couldn't help himself: "Cut! You idols love beauty as much as they do! ”
Not against Andy Lau.
Du Qifeng also criticized another idol.
Nicholas.
"They have too much negative news! It seems that Nicholas Tse, I used to be optimistic about him, when he first debuted, he had a chance to become popular, but too much negative news definitely had an impact on development. ”
Nor is it aimed at idols.
In his value system, even the "Hong Kong Film Awards" is just a small circle of activities. ”
Because Zheng Xiuwen has repeatedly fallen out of favor, Du Qifeng has been angry for 10 years: "I believe that the class judge is to watch all the movies, but the outstanding actors do not have awards, but they do ordinary and get awards." ”
"On the contrary, if you do something ordinary, you will get the award", who has not thought about this, and who dares to say this.
Du Qifeng admitted that he had a hot temper.
But behind the popularity, what is even more unconcealable is his true respect for the film.
Respect is not the kind of praise that moves the lips.
Hello hello hello everyone, sorry, that's a bunch of harmony collective end.
Respect is conditional.
In the workplace, this condition is called professionalism.
Usually those are
There is simply no level of professionalism
That's a lot of fun
Did he scold Andy Lau fiercely?
Absolutely.
To this day, even if Andy Lau is in the sky, he will still be blamed by Du Qifeng.
Every time the performance is not good, he will directly ask Andy Lau to come over and look at the monitor, "You see, you see, you come and see how you act."
It's not like other directors hold the King in their hands.
However, it is precisely under his ruthless criticism that Andy Lau won the first golden statue of the emperor in his life ("Dark War").
This high standard of professionalism also points to Du Qifeng himself.
In 1980, Du Qifeng made his screen debut "Bishui Hanshan Kills Gold", at that time, Du Qifeng had been climbing and rolling on TVB for 8 years, participating in the production of classic old dramas including "Folk Legend", "Jinghua Spring Dream", "Legend of the Eagle Hero" and "Deer DingJi".
"Green Water Cold Mountain Death Gold" is his first lead.
Today, it seems that this is a decent martial arts film, not outstanding, nor rotten to the point of hair (Douban 6.1).
But Du Qifeng could not accept it.
On the grounds of "not good enough", Du Qifeng returned to TVB and studied again with Wang Tianlin and other predecessors.
It was not until 6 years later that he was invited by Huang Baiming to make "Happy Ghost Bumper".
Since then, Du Qifeng has been in a number of best-selling commercial films, from "City Special Police" to "Eight Star Annunciation", "A Lang's Story" to "Death Judge"...
In 1993, Du Qifeng made another decision.
The fuse is "Jigong".
"Ji Gong" is his second collaboration with Stephen Chow (the last one is "The Inquisitor"), which collected nearly 50 million yuan, ranking first at the Hong Kong box office that year.
If the cooperation between "The Inquisitor" and Zhou Xingchi is still smooth, "Jigong" is difficult for Du Qifeng to look back.
"It feels like that person (Stephen Chow) doesn't need me as a director, he walks around in front of the camera, and the camera follows him."
Zhou Xingchi is the leader, and he seems to be dispensable.
If a director does not have his own sense of authorship except for shouting "action" and "cut" on the set, then why should the film be directed?
He began to think about his significance as a director.
In 1996, Du Qifeng finally set up his own film company.
Galaxy image.
From the very beginning of its birth, Galaxy Image believed in and adhered to one purpose:
If you don't innovate, you'd rather die.
Lucky or unlucky.
Galaxy Image faced a "dead end" from the start.
In 1997 and 1998, piracy was rampant, the Southeast Asian market plummeted, and with the unrestricted introduction of Hollywood films, Hong Kong films fell to the point where their mothers did not recognize them.
The difference in the market is not one movie, but all movies are miserable.
Overnight, no matter how much the whole of Hong Kong lobbied or depressed the production fee, it could not find the boss to invest.
Making a movie is no longer about making money or not, but about whether everyone believes it or not.
We all know the rest of the story.
Sir Du asked his friend, Taiwan's media tycoon Qiu Fusheng, for 2.5 million.
2.5 million how to make (at that time, a movie was at least 5 million).
But fortunately, thanks to the hardships of the world, not only can the remuneration be suppressed in a dignified manner, but even the props can be "shamelessly" asked the actor to borrow.
19 days later, Gunfire was born.
Good partner Wei Jiahui said one sentence after watching it: This is your most popular movie.
This "poor and white" small film not only made Du Qifeng win the Golden Horse Best Director, but also laid the foundation for the Du style that was wildly sought after in the future:
Cold, restrained, anti-climactic.
More directly:
Anti-typing innovation.
The most typical is the climactic gunfight.
Compared with the traditional Harbor wind with guns roaring at every turn, Du Qifeng prefers to accumulate energy with silent tension.
And poured out in an instant.
The most typical are:
In Du Qifeng's movie, there is a quota for bullets.
In Gunshots, you can hear the crispness and loudness of each shell as it hits the ground.
In "Drug War", drug dealers fight with the door of the anti-drug police academy. Aside from the few consecutive shots that erupted when they first spotted each other, the gunfire was dense but always sparse.
How many shots were fired from beginning to end instead of gangster films as in the historical documentary "Underworld"?
zero.
One of the most brutal scenes in the film is:
After Ah Le heard Big D propose the two bosses, he quietly and unpredictably lifted a stone and smashed it on each other's heads.
To some extent, the killers, thieves, and gang leaders in Du Qifeng's movies are not like killers, thieves, gang leaders...
He presents a more realistic jianghu.
People in the rivers and lakes have vegetables to buy, food to eat, wives and daughters to support, and furthermore, they are also weak and losers in life.
Almost all du qifeng focuses on one problem:
We can't escape the fate.
But Du Qifeng is romantic and romantic in:
Under the pressure of the universal and powerful fate of the times, he unconsciously expressed a kind of chivalrous open-mindedness.
Film critic Mei Xuefeng once accurately summarized his core in "Poisonous Tongue".
"Hidden Nobility".
"All of their choices are not motivated solely by considerations of their own interests, but by an instinctive pursuit of a higher level of value."
Just like "True Hero" regardless of position, generously dies for friends; just like "PTU" does not distinguish between right and wrong, "wearing a uniform is their own person"; just like "Banishment" is not afraid of life and death, Armageddon can also come to a big head sticker with great interest...
This trait of hope from despair is the strongest than Du Qifeng's favorite movie, "Judo Dragon and Tiger List".
Filmed in 2004, Judo Dragon and Tiger List is a fairy tale dedicated by Du Qifeng to Hong Kong people who struggled during the last epidemic.
The most infectious scene in the film is:
Situ Bao (Played by Gu Tianle) and Xiao Meng (Played by Ying Cai'er) gamble money at the casino.
Situ Bao was a judo genius.
But he was born with a hidden disease, and his vision would slowly disappear.
Knowing this, Situ Bao quickly fell on his own, gave himself up, drank heavily, and gambled.
This day.
Situ Bao had a hard time "luck" to come.
Fifty thousand becomes one hundred thousand, one hundred thousand becomes twenty, four hundred thousand.
However, in the end, Situ Bao still lost.
On the side, Xiao Meng looked at the four hundred thousand that he had just won and lost, and he was not willing to accept it, picked up the money on the table and ran.
Watching Xiao Meng holding a lot of money, Situ Bao also ran.
Running and running, the money spilled out, and the chasing sound behind it became closer and closer, but at this time, Situ Bao smiled instead.
It is said that when filming this scene at that time, the lead actor Gu Tianle did not understand why he had to laugh.
Frankly, the first time I saw Sir, I didn't understand it.
Yeah, why?
Now, Sir slowly understood:
This is actually a kind of adult romance.
When life is destined to be lost continuously, when life is doomed to death, when you are truly aware of this painful and fatalistic cycle of reincarnation and insoluble solution, then, instead of panicking, it is better to accept it with dignity and calmness.
This acceptance is not negative.
It is a struggle that is not obsessed with the ending, transcends the ending, and is only responsible for itself.
In Hemingway's words:
You can destroy me, but you can't defeat me.
This is also the "optimism" that Du Qifeng constantly emphasized in the interview and also practiced.
Today's encounters have not been experienced before.
Ups and downs are inevitable, and there are highs and lows at all times
The question is who gets the most benefits at the climax
Who's gone at low tide
Everything is in chaos, everything is colliding with each other
Finally, I knocked out the appearance
You work hard to do it and have faith
In the end, even if the goal is not achieved
At least you have an account of yourself
The above is not chicken soup.
In fact, today's evaluation of Du Qifeng, saying that he is an "author director", is absolutely underestimated.
Not to mention that he and the Galaxy Image he founded have supported half of the highest quality and quantity of Hong Kong cinema in the past two decades.
"Gunfire", "Big Guy", "PTU", "Judo Dragon and Tiger List", "Underworld", "Banishment"...
Behind these flags.
Also standing were the flag bearers that Du Qifeng had carefully cultivated.
You Naihai of "Tracking", Zheng Baorui of "Accident", and even the three new directors under "Tree Trick", Xu Xuewen, Ou Wenjie and Huang Weijie.
yes.
Finally speaking of "Tree Trick".
△ "Tree Trick"
This film, which is not from Du Qifeng and Wei Jiahui, is, to some extent, also the most galactic film in 10 years.
The key word in interpreting this movie is wind.
This is the last word of the title, and it is also the most mysterious thing in this film.
Wind talks, it's wind.
The place where the gossip flows out is a restaurant - the wind is full of buildings.
Can't see, can't touch, it's the wind.
If you can't fight back, if you are tricked, you are a person in the wind.
The trees want to be quiet and the wind is not stopping...
The wind is this big time, the big pattern.
Good.
Stop there.
What Sir wants to say is:
The three directors of this movie were excavated by Du Qifeng.
In 2005, he and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council launched a campaign called "Fresh Wave".
"In line with one principle, it is to give new people a chance. Whether you know how to make movies or not, as long as you have the heart to make movies, we will let you participate. ”
Although in the early days, the "fresh wave" faced various difficulties such as funds, teachers and teaching methods, Du Qifeng has always insisted.
Until today.
The "fresh wave" continues.
And cultivated excellent Hong Kong works and directors, including "Tree Trick", "A Thought of Ignorance", "Fallen Man", "Trish" and so on.
This is Du Qifeng.
At a time when more and more people are discouraged by Hong Kong movies, he is still holding on.
Of course, Du Qifeng has also been commercialized and failed.
But it's not hard to find.
Beyond the necessary considerations of interest, he always cherished his author's expression.
In his words: "Although commercial is important, film is always an art, and it is not so easy to do these things with enthusiasm and investment in doing art." ”
——This can explain the reason why Du Qifeng did not make police films after "Drug War" and "Threesome".
He said:
"The establishment of the foundation of Chinese cinema requires different people like us."
He also said:
Real estate makes more money than movies.
Frankly, Sir rarely sees a director so honest in front of the camera.
This kind of honesty may be Du Qifeng's greatest respect for the movie.
Xiao Ruoyuan said that today's Hong Kong film industry can no longer produce superstars such as Chow Yun Fat and Chow Sing Chi, and has lost such soil.
Du Qifeng was disgusted.
The essence of this disgust is contempt.
Despise that kind of sensational speculation, despise the kind of nothingness that sees different ideas, despises the kind of self-hatred and self-hatred.
Before Zhou Runfa and Zhou Xingchi, did anyone expect that there would be them in the future?
When the host Su Yuhua tentatively hinted at Sir Du that more and more subject matter taboos, he instead told everyone not to dwell on taboos.
Even warned young people that as creators and filmmakers, there is no need to challenge anything.
Sir Du surrendered to reality?
Of course not.
For him, not to do it is to really surrender.
Recognizing the rock-solid reality and continuing to shoot, this is the performance of truly loving movies.
Can't you see it yet?
While he exhorted young people to continue making movies, he was also approaching him step by step:
Are you expressing it from your heart, or is it externally attached?
Deliberately avoiding reality, and deliberately expressing reality.
Both are distortions of reality.
A bad film that has neither a story nor an expression, no matter how many metaphors are stuffed, it is also a bad film.
Taking political correctness and moral correctness as the only pursuit of film, over time, hurts both the film and the reality.
The younger generation of Hong Kong filmmakers always miss that golden age, but was it really completely free and brilliant?
As Chen Kexin said:
"At the height of Hong Kong's '80s and '90s, the numbers were good, but very unhealthy. Our films are not directly to the audience, our films are facing the buyers of every market. ”
△ In 2017, Chan was interviewed by Ma Jiahui to discuss whether Hong Kong cinema has regressed
Except for a few classics after the big waves.
Rough, fast money, blindly following the trend, is not also the B side of the golden age of Hong Kong movies?
More explicitly:
Those who have only shackles in their eyes are also cowards.
It was as if we had to create an era without shackles before we could dance.
But a person who truly loves to dance, whether shackled or not, will still dance.
There are no shackles, jump when you want.
So.
Stop it.
Stop the "Hong Kong movies are dead or not" argument.
Attributing the glory (or depravity) of Hong Kong cinema to the big picture.
This is not fair to filmmakers who are still struggling with the tide.
Whether Hong Kong movies are dead or not is not up to anyone to decide.
As long as there are still filmmakers like Du Qifeng, they are still seriously making films that are loyal to themselves.
Even if it's just one person, one movie.
Hong Kong movies are still alive.
The picture in this article comes from the network
Editorial Assistant: Kafka by the Sea