Hong Kong film actors, can you stop arranging and combining?

July 10, 2023 | Issue 3292

"Drug Sweep 3: People in the End of the World" is a movie with very obvious advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage of the film is to highlight the unique arrogant and hot style of Hong Kong police and gangster films. Director Qiu Litao maintained the level of "Drug Sweep 2" and wrote a story about brotherhood and the opposition between good and evil with the lens.

The film's starring cast is a weakness. This is the standard configuration of current Hong Kong genre films, and every year they are combined in different commercial blockbusters. Liu Qingyun and Gu Tianle fought side by side in "Tomorrow's War" last year, and this year they are at odds in "Drug Sweep 3", and it is inevitable to get bored after watching too much.

Scene upgrade: Fighters bomb the Golden Triangle

Pornography, gambling and drugs are all social cancers. However, Hong Kong films' criticism of "yellow" and "gambling" is relatively weak. For example, "God of Gamblers", the protagonist Gao Jin's family was ruined due to gambling, but the legendary story of God of Gamblers was still talked about by the audience.

Hong Kong films spare no effort in their criticism of "poison". In addition to the "Drug Sweep" series, "Lame Hao", "Infernal Affairs", "Disciple" and "Chasing the Dragon" all involve the police's crackdown on drug trafficking, as well as the harm of drugs to people, using cruel images to alert the audience.

"Sweeping Drugs" is called a series of movies, and the content of the trilogy varies. The story of each film starts from scratch, and the themes throughout are anti-drug and brotherhood.

"Anti-Drug 3" has achieved three innovations compared to the first two.

First, the character destiny line innovation. Billy, whose real name is Zhang Jianxing, lurking next to the drug lord Kang Sucha (played by Liu Qingyun), is like a kite with a broken line, in the dangerous Golden Triangle. The police could not support him, and he had to record Kang Sucha's illegal behavior.

In order to gain trust, he had to assist Kang Sucha in grabbing land in the Golden Triangle, and the film fully presents Zhang Jianxing's experience of fighting abroad. This is different from the blackening of the first Zhang Ziwei (played by Zhang Jiahui) after falling into the crocodile pool.

Second, narrative location innovation. The main scenes of the first two films are in Hong Kong, and "Drug Sweep 3" puts the protagonist rooted in the Golden Triangle. Looking at Hong Kong films, there are very few works whose entire story takes place here. The film deeply depicts the chaos and barrenness of this three-dimensional zone. The evil selfishness of the drug lords and the ignorance and helplessness of the people allow the audience to feel the style of this dark place up close.

Third, innovation in the scale of battles. At the end of "Drug Sweep 3", there was a big scene of fighters bombing the drug lord's village, and the gunfight film changed into a military film in seconds. The third part breaks the conventional routine of gunfight movies, putting both good and evil in the background of the battlefield. The linkage between space and space marks the upgrading of the creative vision and production scale of the third part.

High-cost police and bandit action films, out of commercial considerations, often increase the proportion of large scenes and weaken the literary drama. However, there are only four more important gunfight action scenes in "Drug Sweep 3": Hong Kong police round up Kang Sucha; Kang Sucha led the team to grab territory in the Golden Triangle; Kang Sucha is hunted by the military on the streets of Thailand; The Thai army surrounded the village of drug lord Dai Jinrong (played by Luo Jialiang).

Qiu Litao grasped the proportions of the combination of cultural and martial arts. He makes the literary drama fast-paced, and the fate of the characters twists and turns. Martial arts will occur when the contradictions and conflicts of the characters reach their peak, thus emphasizing the rationality of martial arts. It's impressive.

There are also holes in the plot. For example, Ou Zhiyuan (played by Gu Tianle) was originally Kang Sucha's right-hand man, and he exposed his undercover identity shortly after the opening of the film. Zhang Jianxing only joined the gang a little earlier than Ou Zhiyuan, and it is unbelievable that a cautious drug lord like Kang Sucha has never suspected Zhang Jianxing's identity.

Helpless shortcoming: Hong Kong film actor sunset red

The three male protagonists, Liu Qingyun and Kwok Fucheng, have more room to perform. The two of them acted arbitrarily in the land of three things, Kang Sucha's madness, and Zhang Jianxing's courage were vividly shown by the two actors. Ou Zhiyuan did not show too complex a character, his main task in the film is to rescue Zhang Jianxing, so Gu Tianle focused on showing Ou Zhiyuan's calm side.

Liu Qingyun made Kang Sucha vivid and agile. Kang Sucha is an outward-looking character who speaks and does things extremely flamboyantly. He is extremely evil as a drug lord, but he sticks a knife in the ribs of his friends, typical of quacks. Liu Qingyun also adds a little humor to the character, and Kang Sucha often gags when he speaks, always breaking the tension and reflecting the cynicism of this big guy.

In addition, Kang Sucha's fierceness in battle and shrewdness in business are the character characteristics given by Liu Qingyun. Even if the audience has seen many roles played by Liu Qingyun, Kang Sucha can still stay in everyone's memory.

Zhang Jianxing, played by Kwok Fucheng, is a restrained type, speaking and doing things carefully and low-key, in line with the undercover positioning of the character. Kwok Fucheng's inner drama is heavier this time, and Zhang Jianxing is always in a confrontation of justice and emotion. Kang Sucha has a brotherhood for him, but in order to uphold justice, he must bring Kang Sucha to justice.

Undercover police officers are struggling with their hearts and are a common character state. Director Qiu Litao added another sense of homesickness to Zhang Jianxing, far away from Hong Kong, in a wild place, homesickness is increasing day by day. The superposition of a sense of justice and homesickness strengthened Zhang Jianxing's determination to eliminate Kang Sucha as soon as possible.

The performances of the actors are good, but they are old. Liu Qingyun is 59 years old, Gu Tianle is 52 years old, and Guo Fucheng is 57 years old, all of whom are close to the age of flower armor. Although the performance state is still good, the audience always "likes the new and dislikes the old", the old card is difficult to play, and it is difficult for the actor to perform new tricks.

The first-line stars of movies should be a 10-year cycle, Hong Kong watched David Jiang and Dillon in the 1970s, Chow Yun-fat and Jackie Chan in the 1980s, and Stephen Chow and Andy Lau in the 1990s. However, since entering the 21st century, Hong Kong films have been on a downward trend. Movie stars stopped changing, and many stars from 30 years ago are still active on the front line.

With "Disappearing Her" fully activating the enthusiasm of mainland audiences, the recently released films have a good audience. Although it is not a topical work, the mainland box office of "Drug Sweep 3" should also climb to the 400-500 million range.

However, the "aging" problem of the Hong Kong film market has never been solved. The number of new films is limited every year, and film companies only dare to find famous stars, which constitutes a vicious circle. There is always a day when the sunset red group can no longer play that day, which stars will be found to be the aesthetic common denominator of Hong Kong and mainland audiences?

【Text/Cui Ting】