Time Contributor | Simon
Flashes of light, drama is like life.
After 8 years, director Weng Ziguang finally brought a new work.
This is the first time that Kwok Fucheng and Tony Leung have collaborated on the screen, starring stars such as Du Juan, Xu Guanwen, Chunxia, Tan Yaowen, Chow Wenjian, Jin Yanling, Wu Zhuoxi and other stars.
Such a star-studded lineup seems to implicitly indicate that it is not a small-cost literary film like "Stepping on Blood to Find Mei".
"When the Wind Rises Again"
Set against the background of Hong Kong history, the film tells the story of how Inspector Shuangxiong crisscrossed black and white, towards betrayal and rupture.
Looking at the synopsis alone, there is a feeling of a hot police movie, but the actual situation is exactly the opposite.
Weng Ziguang used stylized audiovisual language to photograph this gray memory like a dream.
But also because of this, the film faces a polarization of word-of-mouth, yesterday (February 5) on the first day of release box office of 14.87 million, temporarily ranked sixth in the single-day box office list, ranking after many "old films" in the Spring Festival file.
What is the film like? Time Jun will reveal immediately.
Real prototypes
"When the Wind Rises Again" is 143 minutes long, with a large time span, flying rhythm, and a huge amount of information.
In order to understand the story smoothly, it is best to understand Hong Kong's past, especially the gray memories of the mixed dragons.
The film starts from the 40s of the 20th century, Hong Kong during the British rule period was not safe, police and bandits colluded, and corruption was serious.
How rampant was the police at that time?
They even collect money for police calls, and they don't shy away from it. In order to stabilize their power, gangsters not only bribe the police, but even install connections in the police force.
It can be said that the interests of the two parties are bundled and the attitude is very ambiguous.
Some of the Hong Kong police at that time can be described as "acting as a blessing in power".
"When the Wind Rises Again" takes this history as the background, focusing on the "history of making a fortune" of two Chinese inspectors.
Lei Le, played by Kwok Fucheng, is based on Lu Le.
Born into poverty, he worked as a shoe shiner and cart puller for a living, but then joined the Hong Kong Police Force and rose all the way up to the position of former Chief Inspector of the Crime Investigation Division of the Hong Kong Police Force.
Lu Le once established a corruption mechanism related to the triad system, and later became a wanted criminal in Hong Kong.
This is a well-known figure who eats all black and white.
White refers to the fact that during his tenure, he was famous for sweeping the underworld.
At the beginning of the film, he restored the scene of his 14K heroes conference in 1955.
At that time, hundreds of members of the 14K underworld feasted at Diamond Hill. Lu Le remained silent and led the team to fight it all, and this matter also became the starting point for his promotion all the way.
Black refers to his insatiable greed and vain attempt to cover the sky with one hand.
A tainted witness pointed out that every two months of that year, he needed to pay 30,000-40,000 Hong Kong dollars to Lu Le.
Through corruption, Lu Le's non-performing assets reached 500 million Hong Kong dollars, so he had the title of 500 million inspectors.
After the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption in 1974, Lu Le's wealth was not commensurate with his official position, and he immediately became the biggest target of pursuit.
Nanjiang, played by Tony Leung, is based on Lan Gang.
Born into a wealthy family, fluent in seven languages, and humorous, he was liked by the police and the underworld.
Although he joined the police force 4 years later than Lu Le, he has repeatedly achieved performance with the spirit of desperate San Lang, and his marksmanship is accurate.
In 1962, together with Lui Lok, Lam Gang was promoted to Chief Inspector and was responsible for the Kowloon District and the New Territories.
In order to get as close to the prototype as possible, the director specially arranged a gunfight scene to show his extraordinary intelligence and steady marksmanship.
In the fog, he volunteered and broke into the door, verbally urging the murderer to surrender while luring him to appear. Finally, with accurate marksmanship, the murderer was captured.
Although Lan Gang's family is well-off and cultured.
But in the environment at that time, he was inevitably overwhelmed, with sharp words in the middle and morality on both sides.
The film also filmed the experience of Lu Le and Lan Gang making money together.
The former is responsible for issuing the business license of the jurisdiction, and the number of gambling, powder and tobacco stalls is determined, and the latter is responsible for implementing the "management fee system".
The more money is made, the net worth is like a rocket version soaring, straight to the sky.
In 1967, the Force relocated the precincts of Lan Gang and Lu Le to prevent them from "taking root in the ground" and entrenching themselves.
In this case, the two began to gradually retire, and Han Sen and Yan Xiong in the police force were promoted.
Lan Gang, Lu Le, Han Sen, and Yan Xiong are the four major inspectors in Hong Kong.
It was not until the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption that a wanted warrant was issued for the four inspectors.
But before they were wanted, Lan Gang and Lu Le had already fled abroad, and the rapids retreated.
The above content is endorsed by real history, and it is also the main story line of "When the Wind Rises Again".
But after all, the movie is not a popular science book, and it is impossible to explain every detail and background clearly.
Understanding the experience of real prototypes and watching the film will make it easier to capture details and metaphors.
As for why the Hong Kong film industry always shoots "500 million detectives", especially the police and bandit stories of this period, "The Four Inspectors", "Lame Hao" and "Chasing the Tiger and the Dragon" continue to be filmed one after another?
Because in that turbulent era, too many legendary characters were born. Each of them can support a Hong Kong film.
Source of Dispute
Since the film was screened, word-of-mouth controversy began to ferment gradually.
Before the release, the material of the film emphasized the "double detective battle", and the trailer also highlighted the fierce gunfight and dramatic character relationships.
Corruption, gangsters, and police bandits, seeing these elements, the audience must think that it is a tense and exciting gunfight blockbuster.
However, due to the sensitive subject matter, the director abandoned the routine of popular police and bandit films and told that period of history in the way of the author's film.
The director treats the dirty and despicable police and bandit relationship as a background symbol.
The main line of the story focuses on Leile and Nanjiang, telling the story of two men's traces, love, gains and losses in the chaotic world.
The advantage of this is that the plot is crammed. The disadvantage also exists, that is, for the background history node, the lack of basic explanations limits the space for further expansion.
In particular, the political and social crisis during the British rule period is like a passing of a horse and a flower, and the audience looks like a fog and a strong sense of jumping.
Including the gangs at that time, such as K14, Yiqun, Xinyi'an, etc., how did they hook up with the four major inspectors? The underlying logic and the source of contradictions are very vague.
The film even transfers Leile's personal relationship with the gang to his wife and hands it over to the supporting role branch to handle.
Of course, this line also has a deliberate mystery.
The so-called male protagonist duel is not too intense, not to mention, the second half of his life is still a state of disaster and flying separately.
On the whole, the director deliberately downplayed the heroic colors of the two male protagonists, trying to use historical events and children's love to connect the changes in Hong Kong over the decades.
The result of this has naturally caused some word-of-mouth controversy.
After the film talks about the historical background, let's talk about the love of children and daughters, and they can't get rid of the bloody emotional line of cheating love triangles.
There is also a problem that some audiences criticize, the director beautified Nanjiang's personal image and portrayed him as a single-minded, affectionate, considerate and reliable man.
The real situation is that the archetypal characters are amorous by nature, have a wife and four concubines, and have countless ambiguous women.
These have accelerated the speed of word-of-mouth tearing of the film.
Romantic audio-visual
Regarding the controversial part of it, the Time Lord has already explained. So what are people who like this movie boasting about?
Four words summarized: audiovisual style.
If you look at it as a literary film, you will get a very romantic audio-visual enjoyment.
The film has a large number of delicate and slow camera movements, using walking aura, clothing details, and eyebrows to explain the character's position, metaphorically indicating the direction of the plot.
Use fire, light, fog, and chiaroscuro to metaphorically describe the relationship between characters.
If you look closely, you will find that when the director handles the shots of the two male protagonists in the same frame, the light is ambiguous and blurry, and the faces of the two are light and dark.
This means that they have a complex identity of black and white, and in their cognition, there is no absolute right and wrong, right or wrong.
At the same time, the director also likes to mobilize memories, illusions, and imagery to participate in the narrative.
For example, using a black panther to refract the inner anger and desire of the characters, and using a dying goldfish as a metaphor for the arrival of a crisis.
The whole film is full of romantic image language, which enriches the audiovisual experience of the film, and every frame is expressed.
For obscure historical plots, although there are few shots, the director also added his own ideas.
For example, black and white images are used as a metaphor for the background of the era, and 4:3 and 16:9 frames are used alternately to describe the powerlessness and brokenness of the past.
On the whole, the previous film can represent Hong Kong to compete for the Oscar and Golden Globe, which means that it is certainly not a bad film.
Its survival situation may be more like making a dojo in a shell and dancing in shackles.
It was started in 17 years, finished in 18 years, and released 5 years later, what happened during this period?
It can be expected that in view of the sensitive subject matter, the film must have played many games.
Weng Ziguang set the title of the film as "When the Wind Rises Again", which not only has the director's creative selfishness, but also sends a message to Hong Kong films.
If the Hong Kong film does not die, the wind will rise again.