One day in 2007, Johnny To was having a party with some old friends at a restaurant in Hong Kong. These are all heavyweights in the Hong Kong film industry: Li Lingdong, Sammo Hung, Hui Anhua, etc.
During the banquet, Johnny To had a whim, saying that he wanted to pay tribute to the film era and let everyone shoot a cooperative movie "Eight and a Half".
"We old bones witnessed the golden years of Hong Kong films, when we were all full of blood and passion for movies.
"Good! Everyone raised their glasses, as if they were in a different world.
At first, everyone was very excited about this suggestion, and they chose different eras as chapters for the movie. But just as he was preparing, Li Lingdong died of illness, which caught everyone off guard.
In addition to being sad, he decided to continue filming, but the title was changed to "The Band of Seven".
11 years have passed, and this film, which embodies the hard work of Hong Kong film elites in their later years, will finally be released in December 2023. The expectations for it are all outstanding, but in the end, the box office reputation failed.
It's embarrassing.
This film, which is home to Hong Kong's top directors, should have been a bumper harvest at the box office and led the Christmas film market. The work of any director can cause a sensation, let alone join forces.
However, the result was unexpected - it became the "biggest and smallest seller".
In the first three days, "Band of Seven" only sold 200,000 Hong Kong dollars at the box office, ranking last in both the film schedule and the box office. Not only was it beaten by such commercial blockbusters such as "Lonely on the Moon" and "Life Events", but even the animated film "My Little Pony" was left behind, ranking only ninth.
"I expected the worst case to be the third or fourth, but I didn't expect to be thrown straight to the ninth!" Du Qifeng's face turned pale, "It seems that our old bones really can't keep up with the pace of this era."
On the Internet, the audience's reputation was also ruined. This movie, which is the last pride of the Hong Kong film elite, has a Douban score of only 6. 8 points, and it fell 0 in just one week. 5 out of 5.
"Teacher Hong's part is simply at the level of primary school composition, Director Du is a little stronger, and the others are too loose. ”
"It's not good if it's too big, but normal commercial movies are more interesting. ”
The negative comments made the directors' faces gloomy. They were silent, as if they were thinking back to the shadows for so many years, and now they are not what they used to be, and they are indeed old.
When the audience gradually calmed down and analyzed the film in depth, they found that one of the biggest problems - the directors are basically telling their own stories, and they are completely missing the topic.
For example, Sammo Hung chose the content about martial arts training and master-apprentice relationship. Those scenes of fighting and slapstick have nothing to do with the style of film films, and are purely my own personal memories.
Loose, unstructured, and completely at the level of elementary school students.
Yuan Heping's choice of the theme of 97 return is also too personal, with a large space to describe the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, and the political and social background is very vague. If it is placed in the class essay, it will inevitably be criticized by the teacher for not completing the requirements of the topic.
As for Tan Jiaming, he has always been a strong representative of style. This time he perfectly inherits his obscure qualities, and the lines of the acters are long and the meaning is unclear.
Ann Hui's depiction of the teacher's life is also too narrow and warm, lacking breadth.
In this way, whether it is the discussion of the film ontology or the tribute to that era, it has been thrown out of the clouds.
In this movie that failed miserably at both the box office and word of mouth, it is actually not useless. The only glimmer of hope lies in Li Lingdong's part.
He chose the subject of getting lost in the city of Hong Kong, and through the collage of black-and-white photographs and high-definition digital images, he showed the huge leap from film to digital medium.
The protagonist is lost in a familiar and unfamiliar city, just as the film itself is lost in the wave of digitalization.
This is one of the few chapters in "Band of Seven" that hits the nail on the head. It attempts to explore how digitalization deconstructs and reconstructs the medium art of film, and Li Lao's calculation falls through – his parts are handled too stiffly, and the back and forth turns are not smooth, leaving the audience scratching their heads and even leaving the stage early.
This part that could have been the highlight of the film fell short. If Li Lao lived for a few more years and handled this part more richly and complexly, maybe the whole movie would be able to radiate a different vitality.
It's a pity that God didn't fulfill people's wishes, and he said goodbye to this world early. We can only look at the screen and feel infinitely sorry.
It can be said that this movie, which has broken both box office reputations, is shrouded in the shadow of death from beginning to end. In fact, the smell of death has been haunting it from the beginning.
When the project was established, it was still called "Eight and a Half Parts", and among the participating directors was the late John Woo. He withdrew due to health reasons, while Li Lingdong died in a hurry in 2018.
Eight inevitably became seven. So the title of the film was also changed to "Band of Seven", and the scythe of death seemed to linger forever.
During the filming, the directors also clearly felt the shortness of life. "We, old guys, I'm afraid we're all writing obituaries for our own funerals. Sammo Hung patted Johnny To on the shoulder and quipped.
For the Hong Kong film industry, the failure of "Band of Seven" means a lot. It aptly reflects the changes of the times and the decline of the film industry.
As the backbone of Hong Kong films, these veteran directors have been infinitely glamorous and created their own styles and genres. But now that the digital wave is pressing, they have been separated from the market and the audience for too long and have been unable to keep up with the trend.
This generation is about to retire from the stage of history.
Therefore, the movie they directed and acted in can also be seen as the end of the golden age of Hong Kong films. Those brilliant achievements and symbolic meanings will become history and live in people's memory.
New talents in the film industry are rising, and they are entering their twilight years.
"I thought that "The True Color of Heroes" led the movie for a while, but I didn't expect Hong Kong films to fall to this point decades later. Xu Anhua sighed, as if he faintly saw that the former brilliance was no longer there.
Therefore, the failure of "Band of Seven" can be said to be like a mirror, reflecting the decline of the film industry. The new generation needs to be led by newcomers to break new ground in the digital wave.
Otherwise, Hong Kong films will only fall deeper and deeper. This is a problem that the entire industry must face.
From the point of view of box office and word-of-mouth, "The Band of Seven" is undoubtedly a complete failure. Not only did it lose its market, but it also lost the recognition of film critics and audiences.
As a group of directors who have led Hong Kong films for 30 years, their collective attack has been disgraced in the digital wave.
But on another level, the film is much more than just a failure itself. It is a fitting link between the past and the next, marking the complete transition of Hong Kong cinema from the golden age to the next stage.
This generation has withdrawn from the stage, and the new generation should be self-reliant.
So, let's put aside the cold and hard indicators of box office word-of-mouth. In the depths of the soul of this film, there is a torrent of time and history, although the creators may not be aware of this.
It deserves our quiet attention and savoring and aftertaste.