"You can only bring out your best"
Among the colorful films in May 1st, the only suspense crime genre is "Procuratorial Storm".
This is another collaboration between the film's director Mak Siu-fai and the executive producer Tian Qiwen after two decades. Working hand in hand again, as industry veterans, the two did not have too many parts to run into, but relied on their respective professionalism to overcome various difficulties as much as possible and support an efficient shooting.
As a prosecutor theme rarely involved in mainland films, "Procuratorial Storm" is a new attempt made on the basis of traditional suspense police and bandit films. After getting rid of the external elements of "all overfire, all madness", Mak Zhaohui told Poison Eye that this time he was using the structural way to shape the plot conflict as much as possible, "There are difficulties, but there are also methods." ”
After "Tomorrow's War", "Still Think You Are the Best" and "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" have landed in the theater market, Hong Kong films are constantly refreshing the audience's impression, as the representative figures and inheritors of the old Hong Kong film era, Mak Siuhui and Tian Qiwen do not hesitate to praise the emergence of newcomers, but also maintain sanity for the future development of the market, "We really don't know in the future, but what we can do is to constantly ask ourselves if we have brought out our best things." ”
No matter what genre, the final shot is people
Talking about the origin of the project, the first requirement put forward by Mak Zhaohui is to have a real case.
Among the many cases provided by the procuratorate, Mak Zhaofei selected two cases, namely campus loans and tomb robbery gangs. It was originally two separate cases, but in Mak Zhaohui's mind, a story that linked the two was gradually formed.
The script is always the most important part of Mak Zhaohui's process of promoting every project, and "Prosecutor" is no exception. The preliminary preparation and filming of the film took more than two months each, but the script creation took about half a year for Mak Zhaohui. "Because if I find out that the script needs to be changed when I am shooting, it will actually be a lot of trouble, so I must have thought of the script most clearly before I started shooting."
Despite the preparation at the script level, it is inevitable to encounter unexpected situations when it comes to the shooting stage. "Before filming started, I learned that the production department and each actor coordinated the schedule differently." Tian Qiwen said that he could only sit down with all the staff to negotiate together, and finally re-establish a relatively perfect schedule without affecting the quality of the finished film.
Being able to successfully complete the shooting under tight time constraints is inseparable from the professionalism of each participant. Tian Qiwen said that the biggest experience of working with mainland actors is that they have a good foundation, and they are already familiar with the script before coming to the set, "Every actor is constantly asking the director about something that is not written in the script, so that he can figure out this character." ”
For Mak Zhaohui, who comes from an acting major, rehearsing and telling actors is also a very good job, coupled with his grasp of the script in advance, he can promote efficiently on the set. "He's not the kind of director who has to shoot a lot of angles and pick it at the end, and he doesn't need to pick every shot when he says it's done." Tian Qiwen commented.
What impressed Mak Siu-fai was the professional ability of mainland actors to adapt to changes. He took a rollover scene of Feng Shaofeng in the film as an example,
In the passage before the overturn, Feng Shaofeng sat in the back seat of the car without wearing a seat belt, a detail that was not discovered until after the end of the filming, and it was impossible to arrange a reshoot. Therefore, Feng Shaofeng fastened his seat belt as naturally as possible during the follow-up filming of the rollover scene, thus avoiding unreasonable shots, "The two of us were watching behind the monitor, and I said that this person was too powerful. ”
Making a rare film in China with a prosecutor as the protagonist also poses a new challenge to Mak Zhaohui, who has rich experience in police and bandit films. Unlike police cases, there are many action scenes that can be performed, and for prosecutors, it is more often necessary to show dramatic conflicts through literary drama.
As Hong Kong's judicial system is different from that of the Mainland, although there is an agency such as the Department of Justice that specializes in public prosecution, the actual scope of its functions is still quite different from that of the Public Prosecutor's Office. Mak Zhaohui spent a lot of time to re-understand the profession of prosecutor and the judicial system behind it, and the screenwriter of the film, Zhao Peng, is also a prosecutor himself, which ensures the true restoration of the procuratorate as much as possible.
Although he has made more than a dozen crime films, Mak still maintains a fresh sense of this genre, "Although they are all called crime films, the different types of crimes are actually much worse. Sometimes you don't even necessarily find information, it takes a lot of your own imagination to supplement it, and you think carefully. So, just thinking about these things is already a very enjoyable thing for me. ”
In Mak Zhaohui's view, the focus of crime films is not actually on the methods of crime, but on people - why do people who commit crimes commit crimes, and why others should catch people who commit crimes. Only by continuing to think deeply along this issue can crime films have a broader space to be explored.
The same is true for the typology of the main theme film, Tian Qiwen said that the main theme always gives everyone a very "positive" feeling, but under the premise of "positive", you can actually find where his contradiction is. "For example, the policeman, the police also have their own lives, and he is still a common man when he comes home, so we have to spend time looking for a breakthrough in this area to make the movie good."
Specific to "Prosecutor Storm", prosecutor Li Rui played by Huang Jingyu, when facing the defense lawyer Tong Yuchen played by Bai Baihe in court, because of the previous emotional relationship between the two characters, their attitude and psychological state towards each other are more complex - it is precisely this complexity that highlights Li Rui's human side.
It's useless to worry, do what you can
Since 2021, Hong Kong films have been surprised, not only hitting new highs in the Hong Kong local film market, but also gaining a good reputation response after entering the mainland market. From the perspective of genre and theme, new attempts such as science fiction, family comedy, and court debate are also very different from the impression of Hong Kong films that were mainly suspenseful crimes in the past.
As important representatives of Hong Kong films, Mak Siu-fai and Tian Qiwen both mentioned their observations on Hong Kong newcomer creators.
Tian Qiwen analyzed that these new Hong Kong film directors have one thing in common: they are all creators and screenwriters at the same time. "The most attractive point of these movies is actually the 'taste of the play', it does not mean to highlight the sense of the camera or anything, it is to hold the plot. So this can actually lead to a conclusion - in this era, a director who can satisfy the audience, first of all, he cannot be a technical director who only knows how to shoot but does not understand the script. ”
Further, Tian Qiwen mentioned the competitive advantage of mainland and Hong Kong films compared with foreign films, "We can't use technology to compete with others, because technology is already mature for others, but we should break through from creation." The West just happens to be weak in creation now, and they are also very dependent on technology, so this direction is the right direction. ”
Mak Siu-fai believes that the main reason for the shift in the focus of new directors in Hong Kong is still affected by the epidemic. "Because they have stayed in Hong Kong for several years, they can only focus on things in Hong Kong." But now that the pandemic has passed, and when they reopen, I believe they will be different in the future. ”
However, whether it is compared with Hong Kong films in the glory era, or the entire film market and the boom period, it is obvious that it cannot catch up with the height of the past - the audience will always have more and more cultural and entertainment options, and the film will always face more and more difficult challenges to attract the attention of the audience.
In Tian Qiwen's view, the trend of movies has always been in a cycle, and different generations will have different trends, "The commonality is that things are bound to be reversed, and if you do too much of a trend, the audience will slowly lose interest and begin to give way to the next trend." Therefore, for people who make movies, it is not the time for audiences with big casts and big productions to buy it, no matter what type of work they do, there must be innovative breakthroughs to lead the trend. ”
As a creator who has always been on the front line, Mak Zhaohui frankly admitted that he had long been worried about the changes in the market, "How can I not worry, I have been worried since the emergence of VCD, and the current network is much more convenient than VCD." But it's useless to just worry, as a creator, all I can do is bring out my best stuff as much as possible. If the best thing comes out and no one looks at it, it proves that the trend that belongs to me has passed, and then it is the turn of others to take the best thing out. ”
"Instead of worrying, let's think about how we can do a little better and restore confidence in the film." Tian Qiwen added, "We will not give up, and we encourage more young people to join in and think together about how to make the film better and better." ”
Text | Liu Nandou
Editor|Sui Yi