Hong Kong actor "overturned" one after another, and became a Hong Kong film Waterloo in 2023
Are Hong Kong films, which once focused on the attention of filmmakers in Asia and even the world, still alive today?
I am afraid that the era that represented the blowout of Hong Kong culture and gathered capital from all parties to monetize the Hong Kong film market is long gone.
The Hong Kong movie responded to the line in "Don't Call Me "God of Gamblers", "Do you think I'm still as beautiful as I was back then?" ”
Indeed, leaving aside the remakes, feelings, rescues, etc., these modifiers surrounding Hong Kong movies, there is really not much left over the years.
"Don't Call Me "God of Gamblers" - fried cold rice
"Don't Call Me "God of Gamblers", which was released in the Dragon Boat Festival, rubbed the gimmick of Zhou Yunfa's classic movie "God of Gamblers", selling warm feelings and nostalgia, and wanting to come to the mainland to harvest a wave of "leeks".
Fortunately, mainland audiences have long been familiar with the "rescue" routine of Hong Kong films, and judging from the film's box office of only 30 million since its release, the situation of Hong Kong films in the mainland market is very embarrassing.
It's no wonder that the audience doesn't buy it, the plot of the film is simple - telling the story of the sincere emotions between a down-and-out father and his son, in terms of content, it is more like another famous work of Chow Yun-fat "The Story of Alang".
The plot is attached to Brother Fa's warm film, but the title and classic picture have repeatedly reproduced the famous scene of "God of Gamblers", and this wave of operations is clearly relying on fried cold rice to recover the box office.
In order to get a comedy look, Brother Fa's performance in the first half of the film was more "pompous", but because it was mixed with the deep relationship between father and son, in the second half, the comedy was transformed into a sensational drama, and the rhythm before and after the movie was not uniform, and the emotional appeal was not enough.
With such a film with insufficient sincerity, how to buy mainland audiences with growing taste?
The Douban score was only given 5.5, and the comment area was even more complaining, "knowing that the bad film still has to break in", which may be the true thoughts of most moviegoers.
"Dragon Horse Spirit" - Jing Chenglong
Another film bigwig, Jackie Chan, also has a "generous" work this year - "Dragon Horse Spirit".
The eldest brother led Guo Qilin, the son of Deyun Society, with one hand, the popular new girl in the other, and Wu Jing, the "wolf warrior" of the mainland, joined, and the topic and attention of the movie exploded!
Speculation, the film was originally carried out in three main lines, one is the reconciliation of father and daughter, the second is the deep love of people and horses, and the third is to pay tribute to the spirit of dragon and tiger martial artists, but these three lines are sometimes parallel and sometimes chaotic, and the drama of the contradiction between father and daughter makes people unable to find the contradiction point, and the reconciliation and quarrel are too abrupt.
The part that talks about the deep feelings of people and horses is okay, after all, horses can't speak, we don't know what it wants to express, and their respective brains are pieced together into the plot of the movie.
The part that pays tribute to the dragon and tiger martial artist is too blunt.
Take the footage of Uncle Long and Chitu daring to shoot dangerous actions, even if they "talk to the dragon and tiger martial artist"? As a result, it was also mixed with special effects synthesis technology, which was really a straight male confession, which was not on the "point".
At the end of watching the movie, the overall feeling is that the 69-year-old eldest brother paid tribute to himself, and it was his heart that he was obsessed with the spirit of the dragon and tiger martial artist, and he wanted to use the film to express his chest.
Unfortunately, the rough plot and not delicate emotions have finally made another "bad film".
"Nameless" - selling premium
Hong Kong's another actor Tony Leung's "Nameless", compared with the first two, is much better in terms of look and feel.
Cheng Er's film expands the aesthetic sense, the mirror, color, and composition of each frame of the picture are perfect, and the personal style is remarkable, and people who love this style can't stop, but the flashbacks, interpolations, metaphors, and ambushes that Cheng Dao is used to make people confused.
Admittedly, "Nameless" continues the aesthetic style of "The History of the Demise of Romance", presenting a high-level movie look, but it wears out the shining point of the actor himself.
Tony Leung's acting skills contributed in the film are still gloomy eyes, dull vicissitudes, the director amplifies his appearance charm, but does not dig deep into the characters, only on the surface, too pretentious.
In the final analysis, "Nameless" is still a typical commercial Hong Kong film, and Cheng Er still underestimates the aesthetics of mainland audiences, who have long been out of the stage where they can surrender by relying on the texture of the picture alone.
No matter how beautifully packaged the film is, the core and the shell do not match, and it still does not get the hearts of mainland viewers with soaring taste.
Hong Kong film common disease - selling feelings
Hong Kong films have fallen into a decay-revitalization-decay is an endless cycle, without a good script can not attract good actors, without good actors can not pull big investment, without big investment there is no box office and no word of mouth.
In this way, the film party learned to be "well-behaved", rubbed the popularity of classic movies, and remakes and sequels greatly reduced investment risks.
I don't know, cold rice fried for a long time hurts not only the body, but also the viewer's heart.
Once or twice nostalgia is still fresh, but it can't stand the directors' sales feelings in turn, and gradually the audience no longer buys it, so the "old acquaintances" change their routines and sell the box office with the love of saving Hong Kong movies.
As an active "old filmmaker", Gu Tianle has made similar types of movies in the past two years, almost all of them are police and corruption films, but the reputation of these films is not as good as one.
The reason is nothing more than the old-fashioned plot, old-fashioned action, and old-fashioned special effects, this kind of homogeneous film that can be predicted even by movie lines, not to mention bringing in the audience's feelings, even the basic degree of completion cannot be reached.
Some netizens commented that watching such a movie felt that they were all "in a hurry to get off work" and "a piece of wrapped in heavy money".
In such an environment, how can Hong Kong films rise, despite their loud slogans?
For example, "Tomorrow's War", which is highly expected and super money-burning, before the broadcast, Gu Chai also swore a wave of vows to save Hong Kong films.
As a result, the box office was pitifully low, causing Gu Chai to cry on the spot at the event, which can be said to be a tough guy and difficult, but some people regard tears as another stylized operation to sell miserable Hong Kong films and reminisce about old love.
In the second half of the year, it is expected that a number of Hong Kong films will be released, but the film genre has not escaped the plot routine of police and bandits and suspense, from "Customs Front" starring Jacky Cheung and Nicholas Tse to "Goldfinger" starring Tony Leung and Andy Lau is all one genre.
As soon as I look at the poster, a wind of selling feelings rushes towards me, and the smell of "Infernal Affairs" is strong and fragrant, it is estimated that even the picture of the black and white confrontation between the two will pay tribute to the classic again, right?
Or that sentence, the classic can pay tribute, but it is not interesting to pay tribute repeatedly without innovation, what can the actor, no matter how strong the acting skills are, they can't stand to repeatedly copy the same type, no matter how deep the feelings, the audience has to vomit.