"Breaking Point": a veritable large-scale work
Different from the "large-scale" marketing of major films in the mainland this year, Lin Chaoxian's new film "Breaking Point" made all the audiences in the ocean drop their jaws as soon as it was released.
There's a reason for that.
The opening sail of the movie immediately kicked off the violence, and the scene of a car accident pulled the audience into the beginning of horror. The bodies of the bound hostages in the car are dismembered, accompanied by the sound of twisted limbs, and large close-ups of frightened faces continue to flash through the frame.
It's not a CG production, it's a real death of life. In the rolling and crushing of the body, the audience's hearts almost twisted together, realizing that this was just the appetizer of "Breaking Point".
The silence after the blood didn't last long. The Hong Kong Level 3 rating of "Breaking Point" is not just a label. The actors fought and beat each other like outlaws, and even the murder of children was vividly staged.
The man-made tragedy constantly knocks on the boundary of the bottom line of human nature. Lin Chaoxian rejected the gradual suggestion and chose the trial method of direct execution. And the unevasive performances of the main creators and actors make violence a short-handed medicine.
This is the so-called "large-scale" in "Breaking Point" - pointing directly to the dead hole of human nature, and will not tolerate sanctions. This overly realistic effect takes it out of the realm of a glamorous commercial film and more like a copy of a brutal shot from a documentary.
And the impact that the audience can get is far from being as calm as it seems.
A brutal picture of the intertwined fates of multiple groups
If you only regard "Breaking Point" as another police and bandit violence film, it would be too much to underestimate Lin Chaoxian's directing calculations. Behind the serial explosion-style picture, there is a more brutal analysis of human nature.
The group portraits of the characters in "Breaking Point" are like a huge historical picture. The police, the underworld, civilians, and even innocent children are all drawn into this vortex and cannot get out.
They could have stood at both ends of the moral spectrum, but in the process of chasing their respective goals, the demons within them have awakened.
The police officers who represent justice are also not immune to the tricks of fate. On the surface, the state police officer is obsessed with tracking down the drug lord, but in fact, he is eroded by his son's rebellion and the bottleneck of his career. He did not hesitate to point a gun at the drug dealer to threaten him, just to find his beloved child.
However, Officer Bang is just an ordinary person after all, and his justice has disappeared at some point.
Jiang Ming, who is also chasing evil, is even more desperate in this contest. He has suffered repeated setbacks in his career, and in the end he can only hope for factional contradictions within the underworld.
But he underestimated the dark side of human nature, and he didn't see the true intentions of so many old foxes. When the two-sided attack came, although Jiang Ming had scheming and the power to resist, he was invincible to the pervasiveness of the conspiracy after all.
And at the other end of the chain of interests of drugs, the drug maker Yingxiu is even more ill-fated. She could have been content with the status quo, but for the sake of her daughter's future, she took risks and embarked on this road of no return again.
Soon she found that she had become a new wrestling point for various forces, and she was dragged into a whirlpool from which she could not extricate herself. How could she see her husband's true face, and how would she face her daughter's final accusation? Bitter tears swirled in her heart.
It would be even more difficult for any of them to get out of the way, because they are not facing a simple enemy, but a twisted human instinct. In the intricacies of interests and beliefs, no one is completely innocent.
And when their weakness is exposed, it is enough to invite a monstrous wave that will swallow it up. These brutal images are the disturbing metaphors behind "Breaking Point".
The deconstruction of the family and the absurdity of life
The family is supposed to be a safe haven in the world, but in "Breaking Point" it becomes a huge and ruthless promoter. Family, partner, and trust are all turned upside down in this movie.
When the director peeled back the cocoon, the originally warm "home" turned into a sharp blade.
Drug lord Han Yang is one example. He was bent on avenging his dead brother, but he didn't know that he had been carried away by hatred. It wasn't until he ended the life of his beloved girlfriend with his own hands that Han Yang suddenly realized that the departure of his family made him a prisoner of fate who could not escape.
When he stood in front of the cliff and looked back at all the happy times that had passed, there was only endless regret and despair in his heart.
The situation of the police state is equally deplorable. On the surface, he looks like a public, but in fact, he has been feeling sorry for his son. But he never understood the withdrawn and rebellious boy because of the case, and could only watch him leave him.
By the time Bang summoned up the courage to find out the truth again, it was too late. The chasm between him and his son will never be bridged.
As the drug lord Han Yang said, everyone will eventually face the baptism of suffering alone, and no one can bear the pain of making choices for you. And the family that has been with you for the rest of your life may eventually be far away from you.
When the great waves of fate hit, you and I will stand naked in the middle of the whirlpool, subject to merciless scrutiny and judgment.
This may be the ultimate meaning of "home" in "Breaking Point", which reminds the audience that no matter how affectionate you are, the absurdity of life will not let go of any small individual.
When the real test comes, it will be left to bear it alone.
The transformation of the director's style and the deepening of thinking
If you only judge from the bloody pictures in the film "Breaking Point", it is easy to classify Lin Chaoxian into the ranks of those bloodthirsty filmmakers. But in fact, the film also marks a change in the style of the Hong Kong director, who is no longer limited to the idea of a commercial action movie, but builds on a solid foundation.
"Breaking Point" still retains Lin Chaoxian's good action scenes. The bullets shuttle and the wheels drift through the shots, pushing the picture to one climax after another.
The audience was also dumbfounded, and it was hard to hide their amazement at the director's skills. But this time, Lin Chaoxian did not stop at the level of action for action's sake, he seemed to want to express something in the devastation.
So in the narrative, Lin Chaoxian boldly inserted a lot of lens language. The identity of the police is no longer the only criterion for judging good and evil, because everyone exposes the ugliness of their hearts in some situation.
Evil does not overwhelm good, and good does not cover evil, these characters are all hovering in the gray area under the impetus of fate. Lin Chaoxian no longer endorses any party, he peels back the cocoon in his images, and strives to touch the fundamental, naked human instinct.
And the theme of "home", which runs throughout, has also become a ill-fated commentary. Its appearance and disappearance set off ripples and affected the deformation of the characters' personalities. When "home" is no longer a safe haven, the judgment of good and evil will disintegrate, and everything will be lost.
In the process of losing asylum, the ugliness of human nature is completely magnified. This is exactly what Lin Chaoxian wants to reveal to the audience.
It can be said that "Breaking Point" marks a mature transformation of Lin Chaoxian's style. On the basis of the action language in place, he added thinking about fate and analysis of human nature, which gave the whole movie more dimensions.
Blood and fire here are not just visual impacts, but metaphors and criticisms of the hammer he uses to chisel through the hard shell of the human heart. This is a rare ideological deepening of the new generation of commercial filmmakers, and it is worth looking forward to his future creative path.
The impact on the audience is far beyond imagination
When the blood fell and the corpse fell to the ground, the final curtain call of "Breaking Point" began. The audience sat in place, but their brains were still replaying the images just now.
This movie not only brings people a huge visual impact, but also sets off turbulent waves on the spiritual level, which cannot be calmed down for a long time.
In fact, from action scenes to thematic metaphors, from character relationships to fate layouts, "Breaking Point" is trying to break through the audience's psychological bottom line. It abandons the routines of all commercial films, and uses the most direct and cruel way to dissect the reality behind the mask of human nature.
And the combination of gimmicks and kernels also achieves the ideological depth of this movie.
It can be said that since 2003's "Infernal Affairs", every police and bandit masterpiece that has appeared is difficult to surpass its level of movie-watching shock. But "Breaking Point", with its unique style positioning and endless internal associations, may be the only contender that can compete with one of them.
This also marks the maturity of Lin Chaoxian, whose films can already bring the audience an unimaginable spiritual impact.
When all the pictures come to an end, the mood drifts away, and the audience only has one problem after another thrown by Lin Chaoxian in their minds: the judgment of good and evil in human nature, the subjective position of justice, and the metaphor of impermanence of fate are all swirling, constantly knocking on the window of people's thoughts.
This kind of impact is deeply frozen in the time and space gap after watching the movie, and it has become the biggest credit of "Breaking Point".