Speaking of Tony Leung's masterpieces, the starring "Infernal Affairs" is definitely on the list and is a classic in the hearts of fans. Even for a long time after its release, the term "Infernal Affairs" became synonymous with spies and undercover agents.
20 years later, Tony Leung entered the 2023 Spring Festival file with the spy war-themed movie "Nameless". By 10 a.m. on January 18, the pre-sale box office exceeded 66.75 million, leading the same film.
"Nameless" is directed and written by Cheng Er, in addition to Tony Leung, there is also a new generation of actor Wang Yibo starring, Zhou Xun, Huang Lei special starring, Sen Bozhi, Dapeng, Wang Chuanjun, Jiang Shuying, Zhang Jingyi and other starring.
As mentioned earlier, Tony Leung is handy for acting in spy warfare or undercover films. In terms of acting skills, it is also a well-known actor level, a look can kill, there is no reason not to look forward to it.
Tony Leung in "Nameless"
In fact, in addition to "Infernal Affairs", "Color Ring" starring him also belongs to this type of theme. And the era presented by "Color Ring" is almost the same time and space as "Nameless" (both are in Shanghai in the early 40s of the last century), and Tony Leung's appearance is also similar to Mr. Yi, which can be regarded as a tribute from the air, right?
However, this makes people curious, in "Nameless", what role does Tony Leung play?
The secrecy of the film is quite well done, and on the eve of its release, not much information flowed out. Previously, Tony Leung mentioned in an interview that his role in "Nameless" was an "intellectual" who witnessed the cruelty of war.
The recently released trailer for the series may seem mysterious, but it actually reveals some interesting information. The author guesses that Tony Leung, who is in a suit and leather shoes, should play a senior official of a certain party. And he has a direct confrontation scene with the character played by Wang Yibo, and the two belong to different camps.
So far, "Nameless" has released 4 trailers.
This is Wang Yibo's first film work. Judging from the position of the main creative lineup, it should be set with Tony Leung as the "double male protagonist". This movie will test Wang Yibo's acting skills, and in the middle of a group of movie queens, what kind of performance will there be, acting skills? Or can you give it a shot? It is bound to be the focus of attention after the release.
Judging from several trailers released after New Year's Day, Wang Yibo has a lot of action scenes, and as a street dance master, this should not bother him.
In the trailer released on January 7, King Liang Chaowei, King Chuanjun of Bosenbo, and several people are in the same room, silent; In Part B, Wang Yibo seems to have broken into the Japanese pseudo-headquarters alone, and it can be known that there are quite intense action scenes. On January 14, "Nameless" released the "Don't Talk" trailer, in which Wang Yibo's character fought with Liang Chaowei, what is the situation?
Liang Chaowei, Wang Yibo played a scene
If "Infernal Affairs" is the first Chinese police and bandit theme, then "The Wind" is the pinnacle of mainland spy war movies. And Zhou Xun, the star of "The Wind", also assumes an important "function" in "Nameless".
Here is an interjection, director Cheng Er really gathers the core actors of the top spy war films in the past.
For fans, Tony Leung and Zhou Xun are also boomerangs that evoke memories, reunited after 10 years. The last movie they co-starred in was 2012's "The Wind Listener", still a spy war theme, directed by Tony Leung's old partner "Infernal Affairs", director Mak Siuhui and Zhuang Wenqiang.
And Liang Zhou's last co-starring film is "The Great Magician" directed by Er Dongsheng, this time he has teamed up for three times, it should be said that there is a lot of tacit understanding.
In the early stage of "Nameless", it is a pity that Zhou Xun was only a glimpse. However, this still does not prevent the audience from speculating about her identity.
Zhou Xun's dress is more stable
For example, judging from the posters released earlier, her dress is more stable, one of the cheongsam on the upper body is a dark white flower, the other is a dark plaid pattern, the temperament is classical and elegant, giving people the feeling that she is a member of a certain organization's internal seniority. It plays a key role in the direction of the film.
In the "Don't Talk" trailer with more materials, Zhou Xun hurriedly walked on the road with the "dessert box" that Tony Leung had previously obtained.
It is enough to see that the relationship between her and Wei Zi is not shallow.
Or borrow the analysis of a netizen to summarize - Zhou Xun is like a needle that pierces many difficulties, and it is also the thread that travels in each role.
As the "Three Golds" movie queen (Golden Rooster Gold Like Golden Horse), Zhou Xun, like Tony Leung, is a person who can act with his eyes. How to interpret such a mysterious character as "Nameless", she must have her own understanding.
Secondly, Huang Lei, who has been paired with Zhou Xun several times, appeared in the trailer of "Nameless" and also caused a lot of discussion.
He and Zhou Xun co-starred in the TV series "April Days on Earth" and "Orange is Red" 20 years ago, and also co-starred in the TV series "Xiaomin's House" in 2021.
And "Nameless" is one of the few big-screen works that the two have starred in.
Huang Lei was quite emaciated
In the trailer, compared with before, Huang Lei has lost a lot of weight, blindly guessing whether he deliberately lost weight in order to fit the role.
In the "Don't Talk" trailer, Huang Lei once stood on the street late at night watching the car leave, and he could vaguely read his identity, responsible for an underground job of an invisible person.
In addition, in the main creative team, it is relatively fresh to see Japanese actor Hiroyuki Mori, "Nameless" is not his first time to come to China to make a film, the last one was "Railway Heroes". At that time, he broke down on the set and cried, and later posted on Weibo that he "hated the war".
Like "Railway Heroes", he still plays a Japanese officer in "Nameless", and with limited clues, the information about him is really difficult to speculate, so I have to go to the theater to find out.
Dapeng, who was once famous for his funny role and is now a director, appeared in "Nameless", which is also quite surprising.
It can be seen from the information that he plays a gloomy and melancholy Wang pseudo-government official.
It is quite a contrast to the previous impression left on the public. However, this sense of contrast makes people more curious about how Dapeng will perform in the film.
By the way, there is also Wang Chuanjun, who once participated in "The History of the Demise of Romance", and director Cheng Er is also an old acquaintance.
He played a horse boy in "Roman" in 2016, which is remarkable. It was precisely because of this play that he was later favored by Ning Hao, starred in "I Am Not the God of Medicine", and embarked on the road of acting.
The story of "Nameless" takes place in Shanghai, and naturally Shanghainese is indispensable, and it is estimated that he and Jiang Shuying should become the Shanghainese in the film.
Since it comes to Jiang Shuying, I haven't seen her in the movie for a long time. Previously, she was mostly known in the TV industry, such as "Thirty Only" and "Ode to Joy".
But in fact, she starred in the movie "To Our Dying Youth" 8 years ago and won the 8th Asian Film Awards for Best New Actor.
At present, there are three female characters in "Nameless", Jiang Shuying's dress is relatively more fashionable, or a tulle half-sheer cheongsam, or a red cheongsam, and the makeup is also thicker than Zhou Xun and Zhang Jingyi, quite a noble temperament.
The appearance of Jiang Shuying and Zhang Jingyi
As a post-95 flower who has attracted much attention, Zhang Jingyi has actually acted in many works, such as the movie "I Want Us Together" and last year's hit drama "Light Me Up, Warm You".
Judging from the photos with Wang Yibo exposed so far, it is estimated that the role she played this time should have a good relationship with Wang Yibo.
But what kind of character relationship is there between these characters?
On January 16, at the press conference in Shanghai, producer and president of Bona Film Yu Dong said of the film: "There are no clear good guys and bad guys, Cheng Er uses more metaphorical and restrained, more connotative and imaginative performance techniques, coupled with his iconic flashback narrative, you can't solve the suspense of each character without seeing the last minute." ”
Well, it's not a groundless guess. Listen to what the director has to say.
The four characters live in the same room, what is the relationship between the characters?
In a previous interview, Cheng Er once said that "Nameless" is difficult to simply summarize with the labels of "spy war" and "suspense", and it is "an epic about the nameless, an elegy of that era".
Indeed, Cheng Er's films have never been simple to deal with.
In 2016, a suspense movie "The History of the Demise of Romance" made Cheng Er famous, and many people knew him and liked him from this movie. Some netizens commented on "The History of the Demise of Romance": "A rare masterpiece of Chinese-language commercial films. An epic drama, without a protagonist and a wonderful group drama with the protagonist, constitutes the face of an era in Shanghai. ”
Cheng Er became famous very early, in 1999, at the age of 23, he just graduated from the directing department of Beijing Film Academy, and made a self-written and directed short film "Criminal" (Douban score 7.7, starring Xu Zheng), known as Nortel's "best student homework in history". In 2012, he directed "Border Storm" (starring Sun Honglei and Wang Luodan), which won the best film at the 13th Chinese Film Media Awards.
There are not many of his works, basically the rhythm of a movie in 4-7 years, but one is counted as one, and each one has a sound.
In general, Cheng Er's films are not only very stylized, but also break the narrative tradition, and can also take into account the smoothness of the plot, so that the audience does not feel dull at all.
Therefore, there is no reason why fans should not look forward to this "Nameless".
In the Douban short commentary, a netizen said in 2021: "Since "The History of the Demise of Romance", I have been looking forward to Cheng Er's new movie, and I didn't expect to wait for four or five years. ”
Actually, to be precise, waited seven years.
In this Spring Festival file, whether it is at the lineup level or in terms of theme, "Nameless" is a distinctive and unique existence. The Spring Festival file needs to bloom in a hundred flowers, the audience deserves to see a wonderful show, and many fans are also optimistic that "Nameless" can become a dark horse in the Spring Festival file, and sincerely wish that this drama can meet its soulmate.