"The Corridor of Justice", is the Hong Kong film going astray or looking for another new life?

Author of this article: Li Xiaotian

In Hong Kong movies, legal themes are an inexhaustible treasure trove, and too many classic films have been born.

With the decline of Hong Kong films, traditional Hong Kong legal films are also declining, but they have not broken, such as the traditional theme of "Angry Heavy Case", "Matchless", "Chasing the Dragon", "Anti-Drug" series, "Bomb Disposal Expert" series, "Anti-Corruption Storm" series, etc. have been out, although it is difficult to say wonderful overall, but it can also occasionally show hideousness. Moreover, Hong Kong films are also chasing films, such as "When the Wind Rises Again", "Infernal Affairs", "Stepping on Blood to Find Mei" and so on. "When the Wind Rises Again" failed to succeed, and it is estimated that it will not be able to cause a follow-up. The great success of "Stepping on Blood to Find Mei" triggered the follow-up of "The Corridor of Justice", which faintly has the meaning of a new path for Hong Kong legal films.

However, it must be said that this road is not passable, and Hong Kong movies still have to hurry up and restrain themselves from the precipice.

Films such as "Stepping on Blood to Find Mei" and "The Corridor of Justice" are not new in terms of story, and they are all films adapted from real cases. In the golden age of Hong Kong cinema, such films were called "strange case films", and there were many of them.

For "strange case films", yesterday's article has been introduced in the article of the Grand Duke, here is only a brief mention, the classics of this kind of film in addition to the "Human Head Tofu Soup" mentioned by the Grand Duke, "The Death of the Cooking Corpse", "Human Flesh Char Siu Bun 2 The Heaven and Earth Extinction", other similar classic films include "The Butcher of the Foggy Night", "The Curious Case of Dissolving Corpse", "Groups of Three and Five", "The Tuen Mun Color Devil of the Hong Kong Curious Case", "The Public Trial of the Hidden Corpse in a Paper Box", "The Three Wolf Curious Case", "Waiting for Dong Jianhua to Fall", "The Disappeared File" and so on, so big and big.

This kind of strange case film has a common point, that is, the literary and artistic nature is very poor, basically all third-level films, purely in the consumption of cases, how to disgust how to come and how to pervert how to shoot, gimmicks are greater than everything, after watching except for nausea, basically don't want to get any legal education.

"Infernal Affairs" is a huge improvement for traditional Hong Kong legal films, it no longer pursues the bizarre degree of the case, does not sell blood plasma as a selling point, and even has no shootouts, but talks about human nature, and even integrates Buddhist concepts into it.

The great success of "Infernal Affairs" has triggered a wave of followers, the better of which is "The Big Guy", which also talks about Buddhism very successfully, and the others are difficult to say successful. And the film that removes religious ideas and only talks about human nature, there are also quite good films such as "Witness", "Informant" and "Tree Big Move" among the works that follow the trend.

Films such as "Chasing the Dragon" and "When the Wind Rises Again" have great ambitions and a very macroscopic vision, but the audience does not really like it, it is difficult to say success. "When the Wind Rises Again" is directly impossible to produce a sequel. "Chasing the Dragon" is not bad, and the "Chasing the Dragon 2" and "Chasing the Tiger and the Dragon" that follow the trend are almost forced, directly blocking the next back door.

"Stepping on Blood to Find Mei" was originally a standard strange case film framework, but director Weng Ziguang adapted it into a leftist film, which became a torture film of social leftists on the social system, and became a film revealing the hard life of people at the bottom, and the prototype of the case is not so important. This adaptation makes the style of the film higher, rich in literary and artistic atmosphere, and the performances of several actors are also very in place.

However, films such as "Stepping on Blood to Find Mei" should not be many, nor should they follow the trend. Occasionally, it can be regarded as a classic, and if it is more, it will be tired and can't stand it.

Fortunately, there are not many followers, but after all, there are still ones, that is, the "Corridor of Justice" that we want to talk about at the moment.

It is said that "The Corridor of Justice" is a follower of the trend "Stepping on Blood to Find Mei", the best point is that the director of the latter, Weng Ziguang, is the producer of the former, and this film has Weng Ziguang's taste in it, which must be a work that follows the trend.

It must be said that my opinion of "The Corridor of Justice" is not high. Although, "The Corridor of Justice" is currently leading the way in Academy Award nominations, and it is likely to win Best Picture and Best Actor in the end.

But it's just not good.

In particular, "Poison Tongue Lawyer" is currently being screened. To say that it is good-looking, "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" is a really good-looking film. "The Corridor of Justice" is playing tricks.

It must be admitted that the shooting method of "The Corridor of Justice", the use of lens language, and the exquisite selection of light are all first-class, and "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" is relatively much simpler. But "Poison Tongue Lawyer" is good in that the story is smooth, simple, and not pretentious. Simple, and then sincere enough, creates no small miracle.

The mistake of "The Corridor of Justice" is that there are too many things to express, and then it is concealed and forcibly pretended.

In terms of story, "The Corridor of Justice" tells the story of a strange case that occurred in Hong Kong in 2013, the "Murder of a Contrarian Family". In March of that year, 29-year-old Zhou Kailiang killed his biological parents. At first, Zhou Kailiang faced the media and made boastful remarks, showing his concern for his parents. As a result, the case was not complicated at all, and the police easily found out that Zhou Kailiang was the murderer. And the reason why he killed his parents was that his parents disliked him for being short, he was only 1.64 meters, his parents said about him, and then he couldn't stand it and started to kill. Moreover, it is still dismembered, extremely bloody.

"The Corridor of Justice" adapts this case.

The first half of the movie revolves around the murderer Zhang Xianzong (the prototype is Zhou Kailiang), and analyzes the reasons for his crime. According to the film, it is not complicated, this returnee who once studied abroad is full of Hitler's ideas and extremely paranoid, so he slashed at his parents.

This is far inferior to "Stepping on Blood to Find Mei". In "Stepping on Blood", it is to observe society with leftist thinking, giving the murderer and the victim a basis for life, so that people can not only sympathize with the victim, but also understand the murderer's motives. The murderer in "The Corridor of Justice" cannot be understood or sympathized, how can a Hitlerite make people sympathize? Here, the leftist perspective is gone, the ideology is gone, and the depth is gone.

However, the story of "The Corridor of Justice" does not stop at the theme of why Zhang Xianzong wants to kill people. Instead, the camera of the film turns, and it begins to talk about the trial process and the courtroom struggle between the border prosecution and prosecution.

However, this defense is also very ugly filmed, and it is too far from "Poison Tongue Lawyer". After all, the lawyer of the murderer Zhang Xianzong in "The Corridor of Justice" didn't even want to help him, and they all decided that he was a scum and should sit through the bottom of the prison.

Then, if the whole story goes on and on, this film is an outright bad film.

As a result, the story leads to the third part. The story of the jury began to be told, and the story of the accomplice Tang Wenqi was added.

If you simply look at the story of the jury, you are actually a very clumsy imitation of "12 Citizens". Let's talk about a few ordinary people in reality, who originally did not want to become a jury member, but were accidentally selected. Then, they had to gather together to judge whether the main culprit, Zhang Xianzong, and the accomplice, Tang Wenqi, were guilty.

Almost exactly like "12 Citizens", at the beginning, the jury only wanted to go through a procedure, let Zhang Xianzong and Tang Wenqi go to prison as soon as possible.

However, in the end, while they found Zhang Xianzong guilty, they also found Tang Wenqi not guilty and released him on the spot.

If the whole film is wonderful, it lies in this reversal of Tang Wenqi.

The name of the film "Justice Corridor" is also about going around in circles, and Tang Wenqi ended up as a murderer from the nail, and it was best to be acquitted. But is he really innocent? Is he really stupid? From the scattered news given in the film, it shows that he is definitely not simple.

The truth is that there is no truth.

"The Corridor of Justice" is not a film chasing the truth of the case, but a simple view of justice in the world. Tang Wenqi was eventually found innocent because of his infatuation and stupidity. But in fact, only God knows whether he is guilty or not. The so-called corridor of justice is only a zigzag corridor, but no absolute justice, only ambiguous values.

Rawls's "theory of justice" talks about absolute fairness, and to talk about justice, there must first be a curtain of ignorance, and it is not possible to subjectively judge what the truth is based on existing cognition. However, Tang Wenqi used his silly hehe and his sister's crying to win the full sympathy of the jury, so his determination was a simple value judgment, not absolute justice.

The reason why "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" is good is that the film's pursuit of absolute justice is the bottom line. No matter how much the case is obstructed by the power of reality, it is necessary to knock the absolute truth to the end and fight for the ultimate justice. Maybe you think this story is too much chicken soup, but it's just a relief.

The justice pursued by "The Corridor of Justice" is not absolute justice, but justice with too much subjective interference, and this justice should not be glorified through movies.

Therefore, most of the scenes in "The Corridor of Justice" are not interesting, and the justice that is really to be talked about is actually a very false thing. Such a film, there is nothing left to boast about. However, the actors are really good, Yang Weilun, who plays Zhang Xianzong, and Mak Peidong, who plays Tang Wenqi, have played the role perfectly, and the good can't be better, and I very much hope that one of them can win the Academy Award.

Learning "Stepping on Blood to Find Mei" is not decent, there is no depth and hard depth, "The Corridor of Justice" is too embarrassing.

However, Hong Kong movies in 2022 are really poor, and there is nothing worth watching. Counting and counting, the result can only be selected in the crippled man, only this "Corridor of Justice" is not bad. At the next Academy Awards, it is likely to win big. But that doesn't mean it's really good.

Such a film can win a big victory, and really Hong Kong legal films have gone astray.

As for the croaking self-media, it is just nonsense to say how good "Justice Corridor" is, but it is just nonsense to win traffic.