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Article|Henk's loneliness
Editor's | Henk's Loneliness
The image of a cold-eyed female killer in the perspective of the clash of civilizations
A professional killer is a person who is ordered by a group or commissioned to kill a specific object and receives material remuneration (usually money).
Throughout the shaping of the image of Chinese kung fu girls in Hollywood movies, the image of professional killers is a very common type, such kung fu girls are not the main characters or main supporting roles in the movie, but they are indeed the highlights of the film that cannot be ignored, especially in Hollywood series or single-episode action movies. For example, Hu Li (played by Zhang Ziyi) in "Rush Hour II. 2001", Deathstrike (played by Hu Kaili) in "X-Men II" (X-Men II. 2003), the killer Fang (played by Karen Mok) and his female subordinate (played by Lee Meiqi, no specific name in the film) in "Around the Worldin 80 Days (2004).
Mai Lin (played by Liu Yuling) in "LiveFreeorDie Hard II" (2007), the white-haired witch Neon (played by Li Bingbing) in "The King of Kung Fu" (The ForbiddenKingdom 2008), and the villain female soldier Chio (Meng Guangmei) in "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor 2008". The Chinese kung fu women in these films are all professional female killers, assistants or thugs of the villain male protagonists in the film, they are agile, ruthless, but each has their own personalities, the most representative of which are Hu Li and the death girl Deathstrike.
Rush Hour II (2001), released in 2001, is an action film directed by Brett Ratner, which tells the story of Hong Kong police officer Inspector Lee and Los Angeles police detective James Carter on vacation to Hong Kong, shortly after their arrival in Hong Kong, a bomb exploded at the U.S. consulate, killing two U.S. customs officers, who were investigators of counterfeit money smuggling.
The Hong Kong police suspected that the triad boss, former Hong Kong police officer Tam Rickie, was behind the bombing, and ordered Inspector Li to investigate him. Hu Li (played by Zhang Ziyi) is Tan Ruiqi's right-hand man, and Inspector Li meets Hu Li during the investigation and chases her in an attempt to find more clues through her.
X-Men II (2003), released in 2002, is an action science fiction film directed by Brian Singer, which mainly tells the story of the US president who was assassinated by the mutant Nightstalker, and Secretary of Defense Stryker ordered the siege of School X to capture all mutants in an attempt to provoke a war.
Faced with a crisis, Professor Charles X teamed up with Eric, who was serving in prison, to lead mutants against the human army led by Stryker, sabotaging Stryker's conspiracy and avoiding a war between mutants and humans. Deathstrike, the death woman featured in the film, is Stryker's assistant.
Below we will take the two films "Rush Hour II" and "X-Men II" as examples to analyze the killer images of Chinese kung fu girls in Hollywood action movies, they are beautiful and murderous, and they are villains and negative images in the image of Hollywood kung fu girls.
Controlled sexy stunner
Sexiness is not only a major gimmick of Hollywood movies, but also a cliché for its portrayal of Chinese women. stunners, literally "special items", refer to excellent people or objects; According to the explanation in the Chinese dictionary, which is currently widely circulated, it mostly refers to women with beautiful looks and special beauty.
In Hollywood action movies, especially the current sci-fi action movies or police movies, "female = sexy + stunner" is a common character shaping routine, that is, women are usually defined or set as experts or experts with a certain skill.
From the perspective of audiovisual language, the film mainly portrays women as sexy stunners through the characters' dress, makeup, action behavior, scenes, etc.
Sexy hot man in black
In Western culture, black generally represents a pejorative meaning, in painting, literature, film and other arts, black is usually used to render the atmosphere of death and terror, showing secret, hidden, evil forces, so many villains in action movies have the characteristics of "black".
In the movie "X-Men II", the dead woman appeared on the screen with a gray suit, black ponytail, black-framed glasses, and the gray suit wrapped her upper body in a bumpy manner, and she was silent at the beginning of the film, giving people a feeling of rejection.
As one of the assistants of the villain Stryker in the movie, Death Girl does not appear frequently, but her every appearance is unforgettable. With the development of the film's storyline, we can know from Shrek's injection of potion after the neck of the dead woman, the dead woman is Shrek's cold and arrogant assistant on the surface, but in fact she is a mutant or modified person who has long controlled Shrek, and she has the same steel and iron bones, fangs and claws and an impenetrable, super self-healing and immortal body as Wolverine Logan.
Her beauty and seemingly sexy and weak form are very seductive, easy to make people relax their vigilance, and the laser eye Scott suffers a loss; Her moves, seemingly aggressive but ignoring defense, Wolverine killed her; Her body seemed soft and straight, and her combat uniform only had a thin layer of black tight-fitting leather clothing; Her eyes are black and white, extremely terrifying and disgraceful. The film's portrayal of the dead woman is mostly a frightening and mysterious atmosphere.
The role of the mysterious woman of death in the film is set out from the side through the demeanor and actions of Wolverine and ordinary humans in the film. First of all, the film uses the eyes and expressions of non-mutants to show the character of the death woman, the first time the death woman in front of the camera sits on a chair, making the bone joints on her hands creak, the camera then switches to the surprised and fearful eyes of the two women looking at the death woman, the second time is when the death woman shakes hands with the mutant disguised Senate Clay, the death woman's hand strength makes Clay admire: "Quiteahandshake. ）”
It can be seen that the death woman who is Shrek's personal assistant is different from ordinary assistants, and she has strong skills. Secondly, her fight with mutants, Laser Eye was kicked to the ground by her three punches and two kicks, and her rivalry with Wolverine can be described as a major attraction of the film: when Wolverine enters the basement of the dam to look for memories, Shrek appears with the death girl, and the death girl kicks the strong Wolverine away.
Another woman in black is Mei Lin (played by Meiqi Lee) in "Die Hard IV". Mei Lin is a female hacker who combines beauty and wisdom, and her hacking skills are among the best in the world. In the film, Meilyn appears wearing a black low-cut shirt and long brown hair, reporting to her boyfriend Thomas.
In the film, Meirene is portrayed as Thomas' girlfriend, but in essence Thomas's subordinate and the executor of orders. Thomas plans to take control of global computers on Independence Day in order to achieve a conspiracy to control the world, and Melyn participates in Thomas's plan and plays a major role in it, becoming Thomas's accomplice.
In addition, the image of the villain female soldier Chio (played by Meng Guangmei) in "The Mummy III: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" is as disgusting as her villain positioning, and she can't bear to look at it directly with a scar on her face; The warlord killer Fang (played by Karen Mok) in "Around the World in 80 Days", in order to hinder Fogg and Lulutong's plan to travel around the world along the way for her own selfish desires, Fang in the film is dressed in a Chinese black short cardigan with a bat-like hairstyle, red and black lips, exaggerated and crude makeup, which makes people disgusted, but she is petite and good at darts and spinning, and her body is clean.
All in all, such female killers with obvious Chinese labels are usually sexualized, either attracting men in the film with tight and low-cut black clothes, or taming men with extraordinary skills, "sexiness and action" are deadly weapons for men.
The walking dead's killing tool
In the film "Rush Hour II", Hu Li is the right-hand man of the Hong Kong gangster Ricky (Ricky), under the long black flowing hair is an extremely cold face, vermilion lips and fierce and sharp eyes, portrayed as a killing machine, making people daunting.
As a killer, in addition to having agile skills to protect yourself, a fierce heart is also a key element. Hu Li in the film has a good kung fu, and when evading Inspector Li's pursuit, she can easily climb construction sites, and her speed can leave the strong men who climb with her far behind.
In addition to extraordinary skills, ruthlessness is a typical characteristic of Hu Li, and the film mainly uses two plots to reflect this: the first plot is on the way to transport counterfeit banknotes and two agents, Hu Li has doubts about Isabel, who is actually a female undercover agent named a customs embezzler, she took a knife and slashed the green apple in her hand a few times, and said that she wanted to kill Isabel, when the phone warned her that she could not kill Isabel, she immediately smiled and handed the apple to Isabel, And at the moment when Isabel smiled and took the apple to her mouth, Hu Li took the opportunity to viciously fly the knife in her hand towards Isabel.
Another episode is that Hu Li and her men grab Inspector Li in the printing room, and she viciously breaks open Inspector Lee's mouth and stuffs a cherry bomb into it. Through these two plots, it is not difficult to find that as the only woman in the gang, Hu Li shows extreme cunning, fierceness, and even cruelty, even more fierce than men.
Hu Li is portrayed in the film as Tan Ricky's right-hand man, and her confrontation with Inspector Lee and Carter is the real attraction, and it best reflects her bloodthirsty face.
The first confrontation was at a gang party. As soon as she appeared, Inspector Lee began to pursue her, and she escaped with the help of railings on the perimeter of the construction site; The second confrontation is when she disguises herself as a driver and tries to blow up Inspector Lee and Carter, fortunately, Inspector Lee is called away by the chief, Carter goes out to play by himself, and the two survive; The third confrontation was when Inspector Li and Carter were looking for clues to Xiao Jing, following Xiao Jing and encountering Hu Li and his subordinates who were loading, Inspector Li and Carter were loaded into the carriage and taken away in a less-to-many situation, and the agile Inspector Lee and Carter escaped. In the first three confrontations, it can be said that Hu Li has the upper hand, but the real confrontation between them is the fourth and final confrontation.
This confrontation was in a casino in Las Vegas, Hu Li found Inspector Lee who had infiltrated the printing room, so she and her men caught Inspector Lee and put a bomb into Inspector Lee's mouth, but thanks to the help of another undercover agent Isarabe, Inspector Lee was not killed.
In order to protect Ricky Tan, who is suspended animation, Hu Li fights Carter in the casino lobby. In this fight, Carter is not Hu Li's opponent, but by mistake, the suddenly fallen weapon passes through Hu Li's shoulder, Carter thinks that Hu Li is dead, and goes to the top floor to help Inspector Li, at this time Inspector Lee has kicked Tan Ricky downstairs and fell to death.
Just when Inspector Lee and Carter thought it was over, the injured Hu Li held a bomb and planned to die with the two agents, and the responsive Inspector Lee and Carter saved them from death with the help of a rope outside the window. The reason why Hu Li held the bomb and wanted to die with the two agents was ostensibly to avenge Tan Ricky, and the real reason was that Hu Li had been obeying Tan Ricky, and Tan Ricky died, and her dream was shattered, so she no longer had a reason to live.
In view of the above presentation of the relevant plots of Chinese kung fu girls such as Hu Li and the dead girl in the movie, it can be seen that such women are mostly "black roses" in the film, and the "thorns" on their bodies, that is, the kung fu in this article, are their survival skills, and their "beauty" is the guarantee for their survival.
bibliography
[1] Tomorrow Never Dies, Rogerson Spottiwood, United Kingdom, United States, 1997 [2] Mulan (1998), Tony Bancroft, Bali Cook, Walt Disney Films, 1998
[3] Charlie's Angels, Joseph McGinty Nicher, Columbia Pictures, USA, Germany, 2000
[4] Rush Hour II, Brett Ratner, Nuline & Company, USA, 2001 [5] The Touch, Bao Dexi, Bowie International, China, 2002 [6] X-Men II, Brian Singh, Marvel Comics, USA, 2003 [7] Around the World in 80 Days, Frank Corazzi, Walter S. Disney Pictures, USA, 2004