It was pressed for 6 years before it was released, but it's a pity! Starring Tony Leung and Kwok Fucheng, they can't save this movie

Directed by the post-70s talent Weng Ziguang, the Hong Kong film "When the Wind Rises Again", which has been accumulated for 6 years, was finally released with the aftermath of the Spring Festival.

This "Old Hong Kong film", based on the story of Hong Kong's legendary "Four Detectives", gathers the super lineup of "Five Emperors and One Queen", and is also the first cooperation between Tony Leung and Kwok Fucheng in decades of debut, which makes fans look forward to it.

Over the years, the little history before the return has been filmed and filmed by director Wang Jingda.

The whole "Money Empire", "Chasing the Dragon", "Chasing the Dragon 2", "Chasing the Tiger and Catching the Dragon", "Chasing the Dragon and Fighting the Tiger" A bunch of low-score films have long been consumed, and the audience's last bit of appetite.

But unlike Wang Jing, director Weng Ziguang has a stunning work like "Stepping on Blood to Find Mei", and the cast is quite gorgeous, so before the release of "When the Wind Rises Again", it still whets the appetite of fans.

I believe that like Pigo, just released the pre-sale, booked tickets, and the audience who went to the cinema to watch the film early in the morning must be many.

However, from 10:10 a.m. to 12:33 p.m., after 143 minutes of watching the movie, Pico was speechless.

Open the Internet, the first wave of reviews on Douban, mixed reputations.

Netizens who like it said: "The screen is full of precious images, but also with the ultimate romance";

Viewers who didn't like it said of it: "The two-hour film, as long as two centuries, wants to learn from Wong Kar-wai but is very awkward." ”

Needless to say, this is another polar and controversial movie.

In Pi Ge's view, its advantages and disadvantages are very prominent, Weng Ziguang's ability to director Pi Ge has seen, why did he "miss" this time?

It's worth it, let's talk together.

One

First of all, let's talk about some obvious advantages of the movie, which surprised me from the beginning.

The film strives to restore, those old neighborhoods in Hong Kong from the 40s to the 70s, unlike the fake modern interior decoration in "Chasing the Dragon", "When the Wind Rises Again" from the street scene to the appearance of the characters, have achieved the restoration of "old photo-quality", which is amazing.

The movie is based on the fame story of two detectives, Lei Le (prototype Lu Le, played by Kwok Fucheng) and Nanjiang (prototype Lan Gang, played by Tony Leung).

Interspersed with a series of historical events such as the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in 1941, the birth of the 14K Riot, the Double Ten Riot, the rise of the righteous masses, the Gerber case, and the absconding of the four inspectors, the content is very rich.

Although most of the characters in the film are pseudonyms, they all have realistic prototypes corresponding to them.

In addition to Lei Le and Nanjiang, there are Yan Hong (prototype Yan Xiong, played by Tan Yaowen) and Fat Boy B (prototype Han Sen, nicknamed "Fat Boy B", played by Zhou Wenjian).

And the identity and status of the two in the police community are not as good as Leile and Nanjiang, which is consistent with history.

Other characters, regardless of size, such as Wu Xihao (played by Xie Junhao) is the lame-hao we are familiar with, and a pseudonym is not used in the film;

Leile's wife Cai Zhen (prototype Cai Zhen, played by Du Juan), aunt Lei Xinghua (prototype Lu Xinghua, played by Jin Yanling), lard boy (played by Zhang Jicong), etc., these are all characters who can find corresponding prototypes.

It is very wise for the film to choose the "Gerber case" in 1973 as the starting point, and it was the "Gerber case" that opened the prelude to Hong Kong's anti-corruption in the 70s.

On 8 June 1973, Hong Kong Chief Superintendent Gerber Gerber returned to the UK via Singapore after he was found to have more than $4.3 million in deposits, after which the Hong Kong Government set up a commission of inquiry to investigate.

On 15 February 1974, with the support of the British government, Hong Kong established the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), independent of the Police Force and other government departments, which kicked off the fight against corruption.

In the movie, Li Zichao (played by Xu Guanwen), the investigation director of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, interviewed Nanjiang, and the two talked and laughed, and the story unfolded.

Lei Le and Nan Jiang, both born in 1920, were also under Chinese Chief Superintendent Tsang Zhaoke, but their growth experiences were very different.

Leile, a native of Haifeng, Guangdong, after the family was smuggled to Hong Kong, worked in a tea house, and then joined the police force, starting from a patrolman, in 1955 he cracked down on 14K, and made great achievements and fame by arresting more than 100 14K gangsters in one fell swoop.

Nanjiang's background is better than Lei Le, because his father is a comprador of foreign banks, he has studied in a prestigious school since he was a child, knows four Chinese of Chinese, English, Spanish and Belgian, and has excellent marksmanship.

In 1958, Hong Kong Kowloon Bus General Manager Reed was kidnapped by the "two-gun tiger general" Li Zhuo, and Nanjiang followed Zeng Zhaoke into the house to rescue him, and rose to prominence because he successfully persuaded Li Zhuo without firing a shot.

On October 10, 1956, the "Double Ten Riot" broke out in Kowloon, Tsuen Wan and other places in Hong Kong, and gangsters and thugs led by 14K took advantage of the fire and looted, looting property everywhere, causing large-scale riots.

The police struck hard, and the 14K high-level led by Ge Zhixiong was expelled, Leile and Nanjiang, all made great achievements in this incident, and later became Chinese inspectors.

After that, Leile established a "corruption mechanism" to manage the underground order, and began to divide the spheres of influence of the major associations, and each association had to pay him a monthly tribute to "pay rent".

The establishment of this system has stabilized Hong Kong's social order and consolidated social order on the one hand; On the one hand, it has led to the prevalence of corruption.

Due to the obvious improvement of public order during his term of office, Lei Le was promoted to Inspector General of China in 1962, and he took control of both black and white affairs in Hong Kong.

Nanjiang followed closely to become the number two figure in the police circle, and in the movie he called himself a "maid", willing to be the second-in-command, showing his low-key and extremely deep personality.

Wu Xihao was smuggled into Hong Kong in the early 60s and rose rapidly, upsetting the balance of the underground order established by Lei Le for a while.

However, after the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption in 1974, Wu Xihao became a key target of the crackdown and was sentenced to 30 years in prison after being arrested, the heaviest punishment at the time.

Gerber was extradited to Hong Kong for trial in early 1975 and sentenced to four years in prison.

The "four major inspectors" all absconded from Hong Kong after hearing the wind, and although they escaped punishment, they had to hide in hiding all their lives.

I believe that Weng Ziguang collected a lot of historical materials when he was writing the screenplay, so that these intricate historical events were presented to the audience one by one, which is very difficult.

Two

It stands to reason that a story extracted from a large number of historical events is based on the 40 years of changes in Hong Kong, as long as the rhythm is controlled and presented, it is likely to make a Hong Kong version of "The Godfather".

But Pico felt that Weng Ziguang had not found the right direction from the beginning, and he was not referring to Francis Coppola, but Wong Kar-wai.

Tony Leung, Tan Yaowen, Wu Zhuoxi, and Taibao are all actors full of rivers and lakes, but Weng Ziguang tried his best to remove the "jianghu gas" of the movie.

Nanjiang's image is angry with books, far from his prototype Lan Gang's funny, humorous, merry, and teasing people, Sven but poor memory.

Because Lu Le read few books, he was once thought by Hong Kong people that he was "illiterate", which shows that he is a rough man, but Lei Le in the movie is a handsome guy who is good at dancing, and this gap is also very obvious.

What's more embarrassing is that the film also made the two bounce and dance, contributing a song and dance, and Lei Le was addicted to dancing, and danced two in succession, making people think that they were watching an Indian movie.

Pi Ge also found that Lei Le's (Lv Le)'s underworld background was deliberately diluted, and the key change was placed on the character of Nian Gu Uncle, played by Taibao.

This seemingly inconspicuous character in the film, the prototype actually has a lot of origins, is the eldest son of Xinyi An Longtou Qian, Xiang Huaqiang's brother Xiang Huayan.

In 1953, Xiang Huayan, who was expelled from Hong Kong for his triad activities, was forced to take over the society and become the new leader.

Although Xiang Huayan was a man of letters, he was very responsible, and under his leadership, Xinyi'an laid down a large territory and flourished for a while.

The 1989 movie "My Days in the Underworld" starring Chow Yun-fat was based on Xiang Huayan's story, and Jiang Tiansheng in the comic "Teddyboy" was also based on this.

Xiang Huayan is more than ten years younger than Lu Le, but he married Lü Le's aunt Lü Xinghua, so he is Lü Le's aunt.

Due to this kinship, Lu Le often received information from Hua Yan in the police force, and Lu Le, as the leader of the detectives, also took great care of the New Ngee Ann Society.

This mutual care of black and white is the reason why Lu Le can stand tall in the police force.

The image of Taibao in the movie is very different from Xiang Huayan's age, and the inextricable relationship between him and Leile has also been diluted.

It is believed that Weng Ziguang's purpose in doing this is to "whitewash" Leile, making him look more "literary" and "innocent", but just like the "washed large intestine", it also loses the taste of the large intestine itself.

From the time span of the film, it can be seen that Weng Ziguang is trying his best to shoot the "epic sense" of Hong Kong's 40-year historical changes.

However, he chose to be biased towards "literature and art", ignoring the fact that this history itself carries the bloody smell of deceit and the law of the jungle, which is not "innocent" or "literary and artistic".

In his heyday, Lu Le spent more than 10,000 yuan per night in nightclubs, and ordinary citizens could not even afford to eat 3 cents and 1 bowl of wonton noodles.

The rise of the "Four Great Inspectors" and the formation of the underground system of bone sucking are all based on the suffering of civilians.

"If God desires its death, it will make it mad."

What the audience wants to see is the glorious and demise history of the "Four Inspectors", rather than seeing them pretending to be Wen Qing, playing the piano and dancing with a literary and artistic accent, and after being hit hard by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, they can still be light, retreat all over, face Hong Kong Island in a foreign land, and lament the impermanence of time.

Three

Weng Ziguang said that he filmed "When the Wind Rises Again" in order to "send a love letter to Hong Kong movies", so he whitewashed Leile into a "white jade light" and portrayed Nanjiang as a bourgeois young man who played the piano well.

If such a change is still within the audience's tolerance, then the presentation of emotional drama is really like chewing wax, which is difficult to swallow.

Lei Le's wife Cai Zhen (Cai Zhen), the daughter of Hong Kong tycoon Choi Yunchang (played by Wu Yiuhan), Lei Le saw her at a cocktail party and launched a crazy offensive against her.

And Cai Zhen likes Leile's straightforward personality, and marries Leile despite his father's objections, and the romantic story of this poor policeman chasing a rich lady is as happy as a fairy tale.

But Lei Le has always missed his first love, a girl named Xiaoyu, who was trampled to death by the Japanese army during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.

Lei Le never let go of Xiao Yu in his heart, until he later met Xiao Yan (played by Zeng Yixuan), a dancer who looked similar to Xiao Yu, and the two quickly fought hotly, and Xiao Yan was pregnant with Lei Le's child.

Cai Zhen soon discovered Leile's cheating, and she bribed Xiaoyan's doctor and gave Xiaoyan fetal medicine, resulting in the death of Xiaoyan's mother and son.

Lei Le was heartbroken by Xiaoyan's death, and later became addicted to drugs, but Cai Zhen still forgave him for cheating and helped him get rid of drug addiction, and the contradictions between the husband and wife were forcibly reconciled!

This plot makes Pico very speechless, and it also makes me doubt the director's three views.

Not to mention the nostalgia for the first love, can not offset the sin of cheating, because the husband cheats, and anger at the object of his cheating, and the use of drugs to destroy his body, is also a naked crime, can escape the punishment of the law!

Cai Zhen is the heroine who is the key portrayal in the film, and her roles are more than Yan Hong, Fat Boy B, and the big drug lord Lame Hao of the "Four Detectives".

Without Leile's knowledge, Cai Zhen helped him contact the gangster forces behind his back, used dishonorable means to fight dissidents, and sent Leile to the throne of the chief inspector step by step.

The director deliberately portrayed it as a character who hid behind a man and strategized and controlled the overall situation, and spent pen and ink to render his ruthless side.

However, due to the limitations of the historical background, such strong women are still bound by the "male standard" thinking, and even if they have great skills, it is difficult to get rid of the fate of needing to be attached to men.

What's even more bizarre is that in order to highlight Cai Zhen's charm, the movie also hints that she and Nanjiang had a relationship, and after marriage, she also had a broken relationship with Nanjiang.

"Gouyi sister-in-law" is a taboo in the rivers and lakes, Lv Le and Lan Gangquan have knowledge, when they see this plot, I don't know if their coffin board can still be covered!

Four

According to reports, the initial cut version of "When the Wind Rises Again" was 6 hours long, and after Weng Ziguang's deletion, it was reduced to 4 hours; Cut again, cut again for 144 minutes;

And our mainland version even cut some pictures that we were not allowed to see, so that the length of the film was only 143 minutes.

Perhaps because of a large number of deletions, the transition of the plot, and the switching of scenes are very stiff.

Many of these stories have just unfolded, and after a few shots, the audience is brushed off before they can understand it, and the characters come and go like horse lanterns, making people unable to remember their names and see them in the clouds.

In the use of lenses, whether it is indoor or outdoor lenses, the colors presented in front of the audience are very full, and the addition of some historical real shots also increases the sense of history.

But Weng Ziguang deliberately aimed the camera at the character's face to shoot, and there were many shots so close that the character's chin overflowed the screen, and the wrinkles on the face were clearly visible, making people look very uncomfortable.

The most important thing is that the progress of the plot is very slow, and the explanation of every historical event is on point.

Without digging deeper, its impact on the fate of the characters, regardless of priority, makes people feel that the story that happens in the entire movie is just going through the motions.

It's not because Pico already has a more comprehensive understanding of that history before watching the film, it's hard to see what the movie is about.

For those white viewers who don't know at all, it will definitely be more difficult to understand.

Therefore, for those audiences who want to see a gangster cool movie, "When the Wind Rises Again" is really a very "dissuasive" movie.

Weng Ziguang is a director with ideas, but he is suitable for making crime suspense films, this kind of epic theme is obviously a type he can't control.

is that there are Kwok Fucheng and Tony Leung, such a superstar presses the formation, and still can't save this movie.

Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Blood Dan Xin

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