This year's Korean film has frequently overturned.
And the greater the investment, the stronger the lineup, and the more ruthless the rollover.
"Trip to Busan" director Yeon Sang-ho's new sci-fi film "Zhenyi", Netflix's blessing is not good.
Gathered Han Ying's top stream Hwang Jung-min + Hyun Bin's "Negotiator", gorgeous investment ace lineup, Douban look at 5.9.
Now, the "gorgeous rollover tide" has finally reached its climax.
All the acting school, Sit Kyung-woo, Lee Ha-ni, Park So-dan, Park Hae-so, Seo Hyun-woo.
A high investment of KRW 13.7 billion (approximately 72 million RMB).
It's a big deal.
Adapted from the original work, it is even more famous: Mai's "The Wind". Licensing fees, directly breaking Korean film records.
The domestic spy war film adapted from this book gathers Zhou Xun, Li Bingbing, Zhang Hanyu, Su Youpeng, Wang Zhiwen, Ni Dahong, Duan Yihong, Wu Gang and other big coffee.
The box office is more than 200 million, and Douban has 8.4 points.
Because the film was too successful, a drama version starring Wen Yongshan and Zhang Zhijian was later launched, which also received a good response.
When Korean filmmakers remade this story again, the story took place from the national government of the Wang puppet regime to the Korean governor's office during the Japanese occupation, which is now Seoul, and changed its name -
"Ghost".
Isn't this a sure deal?
Unexpectedly, the box office suffered a big overturn, and the number of moviegoers will exceed one million, far from reaching the cost line.
Word of mouth was also ridiculed, falling from 8.4 points in the domestic version to 4.8 points, just dropped one by one.
Such a good hand, how can it be pounced. Is it really like the Korean media summed up, South Korea's anti-Japanese movies have failed one after another, and the reason is just that "the theme is no longer delicious"?
For a long time, domestic audiences have a huge superstition about Korean film and television dramas, even the adaptation of the hugely successful "Three-Body Problem", some viewers say that if the Korean adaptation, it will inevitably become a classic.
But if you put this Korean spy war god film "Ghost" and our "Wind" many years ago together, you can only draw the simplest conclusion -
When it comes to making spy movies, Korean filmmakers can't even see our taillights.
01 Spy God of War film
Korean films adapted from domestic films have always lost more than few.
"Infernal Affairs" was remade as "New World" and became a Korean movie classic.
"The True Color of Heroes" was remade into "The Stateless", and "Rescue Mr. Wu" starring Andy Lau and Liu Ye was remade as "Hostage", which completely hit the street.
Typical police and bandit films such as "Stalking" and "Drug War" and the court film "All People Witness" were remade, but they were not lost.
But remakes have come one after another, and Sun Honglei alone has two movies remade by Han Ying. Even Zhou Dong's "Secrets That Cannot Be Said" has been remade as a Korean-style small freshness.
The director of this film, Li Haiying, became famous with his remake of the work "Poison War" directed by To Qifeng and starring Sun Honglei Gu Tianle.
Although the film applies the framework and bridge of the original, it can be said to have done its essence to create its own waste, the second half of the entire movie is simply messy, and Director Du is more than a star and a half, but it still wins the favor of the local market with the original exquisite bridge, and "Poison War 2" is also on the agenda.
However, "Ghost" is not adapted from the original film and television works, but directly bought the original adaptation, it can be said that it was this decision that laid the foreshadowing of the film's fiasco in advance.
In the film, in Korea during the Japanese occupation in 1933, the Korean civil anti-Japanese organization established a spy organization codenamed "Ghost", secretly lurking in the Japanese secret service, secretly transmitting intelligence and carrying out a series of assassination missions.
At the beginning of the movie, the new governor of Korea appointed by Japan has just arrived at the official residence and is assassinated by a maid, but unfortunately the mission fails, and the maid who attempted to assassinate is shot on the spot.
In order to prevent the "ghost" from assassinating the governor of North Korea again, the newly appointed guard captain Kowon Haedou (played by Park Hae-so) set up a trap in the governor's palace to lead snakes out of the hole.
He deliberately released a false intelligence, thereby targeting the "ghost" in the intelligence section of the governor's palace, and the person who can access this information is the most suspected "ghost".
Soon, 5 people who may have been "ghosts" were taken to the isolated hotel on the edge of the cliff, they were:
Japanese policeman Junji Murayama (played by Xue Jingqiu), and Takahara is very unsympathetic; Park Jijing (played by Lee Ha-ni), the secretary of the Communications Division, Yoshinaga Yuriko (played by Park So-dan), the chief of the Thousand Lessons (played by Seo Hyun-woo), who is responsible for communication and ciphertext interpretation, and Lee Baek-hu (played by Kim Dong-hee), a young clerk of the Communications Division.
From the perspective of roles, the two female characters correspond to Gu Xiaomeng and Li Ningyu. Li Haoni's role is mixed with some of Wu Zhiguo's actions to take on functions.
Park Hae-so's Dazo is close to the role of Hwang Xiaoming.
Xue Jingqiu's character is easy to mistake for Wu Zhiguo, but in fact there is something else.
In the story, the captain of the guard must find out the true identity of the "ghost" in a limited amount of time in one day.
Only by confessing who the "ghost" is, the others can leave the hotel alive.
Park Cijing's identity was soon exposed, and Li Baihu, a young employee corresponding to Bai Xiaonian, had already discovered her identity, and he had a cowardly personality and leaked his secret when facing torture.
But Captain Kogen not only wanted to capture the "ghost", but also wanted to take the opportunity to get rid of his opponent Murayama, and Murayama also understood the other party's intentions, in order to clear his suspicions, Murayama began to contact Park Jijing as a "ghost" comrade to test the attitude of the other party.
At the critical moment, Yoshinaga Yuriko, who hides the deepest, first instigated Commander Senji to have an infighting with Murayama, and then attacked Takahama at a critical moment, saving Park Jijing's life.
It can be said that the director basically cut the film in half, and the first half of the suspense film part basically ended here, and the next nearly an hour entered the action film link.
First, the two heroines killed in the hotel, their swords combined to fight dozens of Japanese gendarmes, and they fought all the way out of the siege, although outnumbered, Yoshinaga Yuriko sacrificed herself to cover Park Jigyeong and escaped.
But Park Jiejing soon returns from the king, detonates a nearby fuel depot to create chaos, takes the opportunity to rescue the injured Yoshinaga Yuriko, and provokes infighting between Captain Takahama and Murayama who have been vying for position.
In the end, Kogen was counter-killed by Murayama.
You think that's the end of it? Then you far underestimate the director's determination to go all the way to the black in the anti-Japanese god film -
The two heroines who escaped from death did not inform their comrades to change their contact information, but directly revived their strength and joined forces to shoot Murayama, who was searching for members of the "ghost" organization everywhere.
Killing here is not counted, the next plot even the domestic anti-Japanese drama does not dare to shoot like this, almost reaching the realm of Indian god films -
The two, who were fully open and turned into North Korean black widows, finally walked in the dark night and successfully assassinated the governor of North Korea.
The audience was still guessing who was Gu Xiaomeng and who was Li Ningyu, but when they saw it, they found out that they were both and neither, because the real role positioning of the two was the Wonder Woman duo.
And the whole movie is like a big collection of spy war films + anti-Japanese dramas + Indian god films.
02 Wonder Woman
It is not difficult to see that "Ghost" and "The Wind" are two completely different types of films.
Although it is adapted from the same novel, the story also revolves around the main conflict of catching spies, but "The Wind" is a standard secret room reasoning style, which combines special plots, detection, etc. with the novel's suspense and human nature excavation.
The Korean version has made a drastic adaptation of the story, the battle of wits between the characters has been weakened, the sense of suspense and thriller atmosphere has been greatly reduced, but a lot of action fighting scenes have been added, and the two heroines have gradually turned into superheroes and staged a "spy war drama" like fighting devils.
From the point of view of entertainment, this film inherits the consistent advantages of Korean Film.
Well made, steady pacing, and action-ready.
The director wrote and directed himself, with great ambition, "The Wind" director Gao Qunshu + Chen Guofu is desperately subtracting the original work, only intercepting the essence of the novel adaptation.
And the Korean version is playing with life to do addition: secret room forced confession + island breakout + double heroine revenge...
The plot density is so large that it cannot be overstated to make a season of TV series.
The best thing in the whole film is the photographic artist, the lens perfectly creates a claustrophobic sense of the island, and the atmosphere of the spy war film is created by art.
Directors who are good at borrowing Chinese films also have many traces of stealing teachers.
There are "borrowed" scenarios.
For example, the classic picture of "The Wind", pushing open the window and outside is the sea with nowhere to escape.
There are also those who learn lenses.
Jin Shenghuo of "The Wind" always showed a promising appearance, but in the end, he pulled out a gun and pointed it directly at his opponent, and shot through his head.
There are similar shots in this film where Seo Hyun-woo plays Chief Qian.
The atmosphere of the film is also a bit of a learner.
The forced farewell, just the right pause, no matter how many times you watch it, you will feel a chill in your spine.
This method of photography makes the air seem to stand still.
All kinds of details exacerbate the anxiety and panic atmosphere, making the picture full of tension.
Action scenes are also very rich in Hong Kong action film characteristics.
Hand-to-hand combat, explosions, chases... As a spy war film, the Korean film completely abandons "spy" and creates a grand enough "war" with all its strength.
03 The acting was defeated
The problem is that that's all it has to offer.
The coolness, explosion, and ignition of "Ghost" are actually supported by the action part.
But these slightly wonderful parts only stop at the spectacle display.
The screenwriter and director of "Ghost" tried to upgrade the suspense story in the original work into a spy action film, and took pains to add a lot of commercial entertainment elements to the story, but too many action scenes appeared noisy and lost the charm of the spy war film itself.
Blizzard Villa became an introduction, the biggest suspense point was deflated at the beginning, losing the tense and depressive atmosphere in "The Wind", the heroine was possessed by a black widow, and the literary drama before the shootout was as relaxed as if she was playing a script to kill, and soon turned to the "black fox-style" "anti-Japanese drama" after the war.
Compared with the restraint of "The Wind", the film wants to express too many things, suspense, investigation, pressing, escape, lore, want to integrate action, spy warfare, and patriotic feelings into one furnace, but the result is a master's hand, and the plot is both tacky and sloppy.
Since it's a popcorn blockbuster, it's a cliché.
The most fatal thing is the irrationality of the plot.
Why can the two heroines play escape rooms in a well-guarded hotel? Since the heroine has already discovered the bugging device at the beginning, why did she avoid the eavesdropping and increase her suspicions?
Park Jiejing didn't know the existence of another ghost in advance, Murayama scammed the heroine, she didn't believe it, the other heroine said to help her, why did she believe it immediately?
Almost everyone in "The Wind" is enclosed in their own rooms, and the transmission of news depends on singing hometown ditties, and the suspects of "Ghost" walk around, and the centralized censorship is completely like a vacation.
The two main villains were busy with infighting from beginning to end, and finally killed each other and let the heroine go.
And after the two heroines experienced a rain of bullets, they can also pose beautifully in a gorgeous costume to destroy all enemies.
In "The Wind", the half-step difference pool may lose all games.
"Old ghosts" are invariably neurotic and suffer from insomnia.
Even with such caution, flaws were found.
The audience is placed in a huge sense of crisis, always concerned about the protagonist.
In this spy war game, losing it will kill you.
In contrast, in "Ghost", the two heroines fought from indoor to outdoor, from suburbs to city, from hotel to venue, and finally destroyed the enemy.
Such an arrogant undercover agent like the two heroines is probably difficult to get out of the right.
The laziness in the play directly caused the lack of tension.
So that in the later part of the plot, the breakthrough of the two heroines' mansions and the assassination at night are just a farce in the eyes of the audience that everyone sweeps each other with guns.
As a result, the logic of the story becomes unscrupulable, the film texture and character complexity are degraded from the original, and the characters simply cannot stand.
The most outstanding in "The Wind" are the two heroines, the witty and tenacious underground party Gu Xiaomeng and the calm and elegant Li Ningyu, while the two heroines of "Ghost" are in front of each other, and the back is transformed into a woman.
In contrast, the gap is huge.
Every look and every micro-expression of Zhou Xun is full of charm.
It is under her interpretation that this deepest hidden character appears more vivid and three-dimensional, with a very layered sense.
She is worthy of being "a woman who can act in every cell".
Even if there is not a single line, it can make people read her heart in an instant. The acting skills of the two heroines of "Ghost" are too far away from her and are not comparable.
Park Hae-so's interpretation is already the best in the whole film,
But it is still far less than Huang Xiaoming of "The Wind".
Huang Xiaoming's Japanese officer Takeda, who is ruthless, has the confidence and almost crazy pleasure of waiting for the rabbit, which is very amazing.
Not to mention, that sneezing stroke of God.
South Korean national actor Xue Jingqiu, who has played "Suyuan", "Unforgiven", "That Guy's Voice" and "Zishan Fish Spectrum", was also completely overshadowed by Wang Zhiwen's acting brilliance.
Compared with Xue Jingqiu, Wang Tianxiang, the head of the special services played by Wang Zhiwen, sees everyone who is smiling and not smiling + cold hostility.
Only when I saw Gu Xiaomeng, the ambiguity in my eyes was clear to the audience.
The most desperate thing is that when Gu Xiaomeng was bent on death, although Huang Xiaoming shouted "don't shoot, don't shoot", Wang Tianxiang still shot and killed Gu Xiaomeng.
It seems to protect Takeda Chang, but it is actually the death intention of the goddess.
The protagonist is hanged and beaten.
Even the supporting role, "Ghost" was completely beaten by "The Wind".
Just give a small character in the opening.
Duan Yihong's traitor received a box lunch with a few lines.
But the camera suddenly focused on him, and he was lighting downward, and his gloomy old face was like a ghost. A compliment that doesn't smile.
To be honest, just the acting skills of this scene, I didn't see the whole "Ghost".
It can also be said that a whole "Ghost", so many Korean acting schools, the characters did not have a complete growth arc, and the acting skills were killed by Duan Yihong, a trick role who appeared in less than three minutes in "The Wind".
Although "The Wind" is powerful, why did the annual spy war film of Han Film fail so badly, the answer can only be: the hole dug by the script cannot be filled with acting skills.
04 Korean film superstition
Seeing this, everyone may wonder: "Ghost" lost to "The Wind" is normal, but why is the gap so large?
Even if the film is viewed as a female action movie at the beginning, it cannot stop the chaotic story and editing, making the tension and tragedy of the film disappear.
The director's intention is to make the film more idolized, commercial, and localized, but the adaptation is indeed too peaceful, losing the suspense support of the original work, and hard filmed into a "Assassination"-style pure anti-Japanese action cool film, without the core support of the good story, the whole movie will inevitably disappoint.
After two hours, the film has hardly any emotional impetus.
It's purely for us to watch a hilarious and repetitive action scene is boring to watch too much.
In addition, the film has some problems with too mixed styles.
For example, the whole film is too mixed with Japanese and Korean. It's confusing to hear.
All the story lines are a bit superficial and do not dig deeper content.
And the sense of suspense of "The Wind" lies in playing the excitement of the original book to the extreme, a game of werewolf killing, among the five people, to find a "ghost".
It is easy for the audience to step into the suspenseful atmosphere of the movie, and achieve heart-wrenching synchronization of the characters' breathing fate.
Not to mention, the great sense of tragedy presented at the end of the film.
You can never imagine what kind of pain and courage the revolutionaries of that era experienced.
As Chen Guofu said: "The so-called heroic feelings are difficult to embody if they are not subjected to some hardships." ”
The sublimation of the film's finale, so far I have only seen it in top spy dramas such as "Kite" and "Lurking".
And what "The Wind" has is exactly what "Ghost" lacks.
Looking back at the Korean blockbusters of the past two years, it is not only "Ghost" that has overturned.
For example, the sci-fi film "Xu Fu", which gathers Kong Liu and Park Baojian, has a double reputation at the box office.
The starring is the story, which is about the profound topic of "immortal man".
But the plot eventually went to the cliché, and the theme core was empty, with only a bunch of embarrassing special effects.
Another example is "Zhenyi", Douban 5.2. Looking at the theme alone, it has the potential to become a new Korean sci-fi blockbuster.
As a result, science fiction is reduced to a backdrop, just telling a bland story that is boring and even a little bloody.
The success of Korean film and television works is obvious to all.
However, the domestic audience's impression of Korean film and television dramas comes from survivorship bias in a sense, that is, we often only see their successful works, but behind the success, there are more failed works such as "Ghost".
Among these failures, there are lessons that we can also learn.
That is, they have ambition and gorgeous lineups, resources, but no patience to polish the story.
If you don't have to care, you can't support this ambition.
Finally, back to our own "The Wind", why is it still the ceiling of spy movies after many years?
Because everyone is in the torment.
Su Youpeng practiced Beijing opera for two months and used a shot.
Zhang Hanyu: "The body and mind have suffered greatly. ”
Li Bingbing: "I have to cry for a long time every time I shout cut. ”
Zhou Xun: "During that time, I had to take sleeping pills." ”
It's not a pain to make a good show, but a good movie and a good performance must not come easily.
What makes "The Wind" different?
Chen Guofu's words I obey:
"Whether it is a Chinese-language film or a foreign film, they no longer create myths, they feel that the world is already like this, so they should stop believing in things that are too beautiful and too faithful, but I think that movies should provide things with ideals and beliefs."
Listen to Gu Xiaomeng's monologue in "The Wind" -
"I'm not afraid of death, I'm afraid that the people I love won't know why I died. My dear ones, I have been so merciless to you,
Just because the nation has reached the time of survival, my generation can only fight to save it in case.
My flesh will perish, but my soul will be with you. The enemy will not understand, old ghosts, old guns are not individuals,
It's a spirit, a faith. ”
Re-read today, still get goosebumps.
This is the reason why "The Wind" is proud of the crowd of spy war films, and it is also the reason why Liu Yunlong's spy war drama has not been surpassed so far.
But what makes Sir and fans sigh the most is -
In the spy war genre, "The Wind" is certainly unsurpassed in the entire Asian film. Korean films with the strongest genre films are far worse, and other countries are even worse.
But what about our Chinese films themselves, who will surpass "The Wind"?