Wen 丨 Yin Hong (Film critic, Vice Chairman of China Film Association)
Original title
Touching the "pain point" of reality and reaching the "cool point" of the public
——"Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" after viewing
"Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" tells the story of lawyer Lin Liangshui, a single mother who is deeply involved in a case of female abuse, fighting back against the powerful Jedi and defending the final dignity of the law.
The film's release in the mainland has attracted widespread attention, firstly, because the film has created the highest box office record in the history of Chinese-language films in Hong Kong, China, breaking through the pattern of Hollywood films dominating the Hong Kong market in recent years; The second is that it is a legal drama different from the popular genres of martial arts, police and bandits, action, and gangsters, and literary drama films can become the highest-grossing films, which shows its unique value and charm; The third is the breakthrough work of Huang Zihua, a well-known "talk show" actor in the Cantonese-speaking region, whose success has allowed many expectants to get their wishes, and strangers to make new discoveries.
Although as a Chinese-language film set on the society, law, life and characters of Hong Kong, "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" will inevitably have some so-called "cultural discounts" and "cross-cultural losses" when screened in the mainland, but the vividness of its character shaping, the accuracy of the narrative rhythm, the smooth presentation of the image, the fullness of the comedy texture, especially the cheering of social fairness and justice, will definitely arouse the mainland audience's identification with the story and characters of the film and the conscience expressed in the film. A strong resonance with the theme of justice and immortality.
The boldness of "literary opera" lies in the characters. The unique, fresh and vivid character image should be the premise for this film to be recognized by the audience. The theme of law is not uncommon in Hong Kong film and television dramas. But in this film, Huang Zihua's barrister Lin Liangshui, unlike those well-dressed and domineering lawyers, on the one hand, he is arrogant and cynical, and the comic exaggerated court judgment at the beginning of the film that delayed his appearance made his character's personality preemptive, and in the poisonous tongue-like judgment speech, there is a kind of jealousy like hatred, discerning whether or not, laying the character foreshadowing for its later transformation.
When Lin Liangshui, like other lawyers, tried to hold the "smelly feet" of the rich and enjoy the worldly life of drunken gold fans, he did not expect that he was kicked to the ground by the "smelly feet" and mistakenly sent an innocent woman to prison. On the one hand, the torture of conscience, on the other hand, but also the humiliation of self-esteem, Lin Liangshui had to break the cauldron and fight back, so as to win the last "face" for himself and the law. This character is gradually injected with the motivation of individual behavior from a low starting point, which has a certain similarity with the narrative strategy of the popular Korean film "The Defender" to shape lawyer Song Woo-suk. This image, from flawed to tall, from scrap to heroic, has successfully completed the image of a lawyer who is unruly but still has a conscience and integrity.
It is this tension that makes the characters grow and change the arc, and have the fireworks of life and the diversity of personalities, and also bring a sense of life fun and comedy that the audience is easy to accept and get close to. At the same time, Lin Liangshui's dramatic conflict with other characters also has a relatively solid foundation, and Jin Yuanshan, as his opponent of prosecution and defense, finally has the conditions for a "sharp turn" in "counterattack" under the inspiration of the bottom line of justice. Affinity, vividness, motivational coherence and shifting arcs together constitute the narrative charm of the characters.
Of course, the biggest reason why this work can become a "best-selling movie" is that it sharply touches on the common topic of society: social justice represented by legal justice. Zeng Jieer, a former model in the film, became a victim of self-protection in the rich circle in an accidental misfortune, from a "doll" to a "humiliated and damaged" helpless victim woman who had no way to cry. Although this kind of story is not new, it can be said that it has given new meaning to "old topics" in the current trend of social thought that focuses on globalization and capitalization, and pays attention to social fairness and justice.
More and more people feel the explicit and invisible social privilege brought by the expansion of power, and even become a legal privilege. People's dissatisfaction with this kind of social privileges, solidification of hierarchies, and huge inequality under the surface equality has been repeatedly seen in film and television works such as "Joker", "Parasite", "Squid Game", "Nameless", "Crowd" and so on in recent years. At this point, "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" can be said to have also touched the general pain points of current public attention.
If there is only the "pain point" revealed, "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" is still a serious social issue movie with a limited audience, in fact, this film is a genre movie that excites the audience with its wave after wave of "cool points". As a legal drama, there are many court debates in the film, but these debates are not only inquiries and defenses of the case, but often questions about social inequality, accusations of legal injustice, and condemnation of injustice in people's hearts. These sharp, sharp, and cold statements, although not necessarily in line with the possibility of the real scene being debated in court, make the film climax and the audience's heart soar.
The climax of the whole film is Lin Liangshui's roar at the final trial: "In the past, everyone said that everyone was equal before the law; Today, everyone changes their tune and says that the poor are dead before the law. I'll see who's dead today." In the end, the prosecution's lawyer turned against the water, the plaintiff became the defendant, and the "righteous" ending of the jury's reversal made the thrill of victory pervade the audience's hearts. In this sense, the film is a "legal" type film that makes the audience cathartic and happy, and it uses an "unjust" event to guide the audience to obtain a "fair" satisfaction.
In the audiovisual presentation of the film, although it also uses fast and smooth editing, maintaining the modern rhythm of the film and some comic exaggeration, it adheres to the zero-degree nature of "just words" in terms of artistic style, there is no intentional spectacle display, no luxurious big scenes, and even the lens language is relatively unpretentious.
Although this choice of film style may be related to cost control, it also fully shows that the audiovisual presentation of the film is to serve the story, serve the characters, serve the emotions, and serve the theme. Showmanship, while sometimes necessary, is not necessarily necessary. As Mr. Jiang Zhiqiang, the producer of the film, said, the most fundamental thing in the film is to tell a good story.
Of course, as discussed above, "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" is a highly completed commercial "genre film", the "routines" of genre films constitute the underlying logic of its story, the long-standing comedy style of Hong Kong films adds "kind" condiments to its "serious" theme, and many scenes in the courtroom are also rendered out of the genre of "real possibility".
So, to measure "Poison Tongue Lawyer" by serious realist film standards, it is clear that we can find a series of so-called "slots". However, if we look at it as a legal genre film that touches the "pain points" of society and releases the "cool points" of the public psyche, it may not be entangled in the boundary between its "real" and "fictional". It is in a genre of "hypothetical" that brings the audience a collective carnival of shouting for fairness and justice.
New film views
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