Hong Kong action movies, it's been a long time since I've raised my eyebrows.
"Slaying the Wolf" and "Fuse" are the last impressions of Hong Kong action movies that stay in the minds of action fans. Although there is also a "Ip Man" series in the back, the action scenes are obviously not enjoyable. "Rage: Serious Case" is just a small fight.
When Donnie Yen, the last kung fu master in Hong Kong, is 61 years old, Hong Kong action movies really have no successor. Originally, An Zhijie and Wu Yunlong, who everyone still pinned their hopes on, were not able to take over, but were reduced to the quagmire of the Internet and could not get up.
Just when everyone was expressing their disappointment with Hong Kong action movies, Zheng Baorui jumped out and directed "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City", which was eye-catching.
Wow, this is the long-awaited Hong Kong action movie, it's really good.
Although the cast of "Kowloon Walled City" does not look so much like an action movie, there are also two typical action actors like Sammo Hung and Wu Yunlong, one old and one young, and their performances are good, especially Wu Yunlong, he can be regarded as turning over this time, and the crazy and arrogant villain Wang Jiu in the film is very interesting.
originally thought that Louis Koo, Aaron Kwok, and Yam Xianqi, the pillars of Hong Kong movies, were the leading actors in "Kowloon Walled City", and the story tells their grievances and entanglements. As a result, they are all supporting roles, Lin Feng is the male number one, and Liu Junqian and Wu Yunlong are the people who support the core of the story.
Anyway, in action movies, acting is not the first, as long as the story is good and the action is beautiful, it is good. Everyone has always felt that Lin Feng has no acting skills, and it seems very inappropriate for him to be the male lead. However, this time it was not bad, Lin Feng's male number one could afford it.
As for the story, just like the title of the film, it is a story that takes place in the "Kowloon Walled City", a bit like the story of "Kung Fu".
"Kung Fu" is a freehand "Kowloon Walled City". The pig cage walled city in "Kung Fu" is actually a condensed freehand version of the Kowloon walled city.
Historically, the "Kowloon Walled City" is a zone of "three regardless", that is, the Chinese government, the Hong Kong government, and the British colonizers. Because when Britain leased the Kowloon Peninsula to Chinese mainland, it vacated the 2.7-hectare acropolis of Kowloon City, and agreed that Chinese officials could still be stationed in it, and the nearby pier was reserved for traffic, which was an "enclave" of China on the Kowloon Peninsula.
The treaty signed between Britain and the Qing Dynasty was signed in 1898. Before the Xinhai Revolution, this small acropolis had always been under the direct jurisdiction of the central government of the Qing Dynasty. But after the Xinhai Revolution, it was forgotten by the central government and no longer cared about it. And the British government of Hong Kong also abided by the treaty, and did not secretly accept it under the jurisdiction of Hong Kong and Britain.
During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the Japanese demolished all the walls of Kowloon City in order to expand the airport's drainage system because the "Kowloon City" was too close to Kai Tak Airport. There were no city walls, so a large number of street sleepers and vagrants began to gather here. Without the city wall, it would no longer be "Kowloon City", but everyone still called it according to the custom, so it became "Kowloon Walled City".
For this, the British, of course, wanted to enter it to govern, but they met with collective resistance and succeeded. From then on, the British chose to give up and no longer manage. However, the Royal Hong Kong Police did not have the right to enter, and the Chinese government refused to manage it at that time, and the "Kowloon Walled City" suddenly became a hotbed of crime and a slum.
After 1949, a large number of mainland refugees poured into Hong Kong, because the "Kowloon Walled City" was unattended and could live casually, so refugees poured into the Kowloon Walled City. Later, there was the influx of refugees from Vietnam and Malaysia. Subsequently, pornography, gambling and drugs also followed, making it a paradise for crime and a nightmare for Hong Kong people.
It was not until 1993 that the Hong Kong government, in accordance with the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed between China and Britain in 1984, officially entered the walled city at the request of the Chinese government to carry out clean-up work. In this way, the "Kowloon Walled City" officially died out. At that time, about 50,000 people lived in the walled city, and the population density of the walled city was 1.9 million people per square kilometer, based on the area of 0.026 square kilometers, making it the most densely populated place in the world.
In addition, because the British government in Hong Kong did not recognize the qualifications of Chinese doctors at that time, the walled city also became a concentration of unlicensed dentist clinics and counterfeit goods outlets. Therefore, for the poor, the "Kowloon Walled City" has become a place full of warmth and a home for their survival.
The pigpen city in "Kung Fu" is one such place, which not only provides a place for a large number of poor people to survive, but also accepts a group of martial arts masters to hide in it. Of course, organizations like the Axe Gang can also enter and exit at will and do evil, and evil masters such as the "Heaven and Earth Defects" and the Fire Cloud Evil God can also enter and kill at will. Ah Xing, played by Stephen Chow, can also be mixed in, trying to find food to eat, and grow into a master in it.
The above-mentioned elements in "Kung Fu" can basically be found in "Kowloon Walled City".
The male number one played by Lin Feng is equivalent to Ah Xing played by Stephen Chow, who walked into it by mistake, then grew up inside, and finally became a new generation of masters.
The roles of the charter wife and the charter man are similar to the tornado played by Louis Koo, the entire walled city is under his protection, and he is a big man in the walled city.
As for the three masters in "Kung Fu", Tan Leg, Iron Fist, and Wulang Bagua Stick, they are similar to Xinyi, Twelve Lang, and Sizai played by Liu Junqian and others. It's just that the three masters didn't form friends with Ah Xing, and the three of them formed brothers with Lin Feng.
The Axe Gang in "Kung Fu" is similar to Sammo Hung in "Kowloon Walled City", with strong forces outside the walled city, eyeing the walled city, and bent on taking it and collecting it for himself.
As for the evil god of Huoyun, it is similar to Wang Jiu, the subordinate of the big boss played by Sammo Hung, who obeys the leader when he has interests, and once the leader gets in the way, he simply kills the boss directly, takes the position himself, and has a head-to-head confrontation with the male protagonist.
The story line of "Kowloon Walled City" is probably that Lin Feng broke into the Kowloon Walled City in a panic because he robbed the drug bag of gangster Sammo Hung, and was chased by Sammo Hung's subordinate Wang Jiu (played by Wu Yunlong) and others. There, he wants to exchange drugs for money, but Tornado (Louis Koo), who keeps the city safe, won't allow him to do so. But the tornado did not kill them all, and allowed Lin Feng to make a living in the walled city, as long as he didn't make trouble. Lin Feng and Xin Yi and others played by Liu Junqian formed brothers and found a sense of existence in the walled city. But Sammo Hung and the others were eager to kill Lin Feng and then quickly.
Tornado maintains the security of the walled city, but he is actually only a civilian security captain. Later, Brother Qiu (played by Ren Xianqi), one of the shareholders of the walled city, and Brother Hu, the gangster and gangster, discovered that Lin Feng's background was not simple, he was the son of Chen Zhan (played by Aaron Kwok), the former number one killer of the walled city, and he was also the sworn enemy of Brother Qiu and Brother Tiger. Brother Qiu demanded that Lin Feng must die, but the tornado protected Lin Feng at the critical moment.
In a fit of rage, Qiu made a deal with Sammo Hung, letting the latter take over the walled city and kill Tornado if necessary. Sammo Hung couldn't ask for it. So, he killed the tornado and took the territory of the walled city.
However, Sammo Hung was too arrogant and died directly at the hands of his subordinate Wang Jiu (Wu Yunlong).
In the end, Lin Feng and Wang Jiu started a duel.
Fighting, fighting, fighting, killing, killing, killing, Lin Feng's growth road, stumbling, looks very much like what Ah Xing played by Stephen Chow encountered in the pigpen walled city.
Therefore, "Kowloon Walled City" can be regarded as a serious version of "Kung Fu".
For "Kung Fu", as long as Sammo Hung as the martial arts instructor in the front, that is, the scene where the three masters fight the axe gang, is a hard bridge and a hard horse, and the authenticity of the fight is emphasized. Later, Sammo Hung and Stephen Chow had a falling out, Sammo Hung withdrew, and Yuan Heping joined, and the action scenes in the back began to be freehand-based, no longer hard bridges and hard horses, no longer real. Therefore, when everyone talks about Hong Kong action movies, "Kung Fu" is generally not included.
Everyone's last memory of Hong Kong action movies still stays on "Slaying the Wolf" and "Fuse". These are all works filmed by Ye Weixin and Donnie Yen, but they later filmed a "Dragon Tiger Gate", originally wanted to start a new series, but the result was too fake and everyone didn't accept it, so Donnie Yen's action scenes were only "Ip Man", and there was no breakthrough.
If you want to ask the style of "Kowloon Walled City", it is actually between "Slaying the Wolf" and "Dragon Tiger Gate". The power of "Slaying the Wolf" lies in its hard bridge and hard horse, and the fights are extremely real, even Wu Jing played a small supporting role in it, and because the fighting actions were so beautiful, he finally came out with his own skin and was remembered by everyone.
The fighting style of "Kowloon Walled City" is simply a realistic action + effect rendering. In other words, the fighting action of the film is hard and hard, and every move and every momentum is the action in a classical Hong Kong action movie, but after a punch is punched, the effect is rendered, with an obvious anime style. This film is indeed adapted from the anime work of the same name.
Action real + effect rendering, this fighting style is still quite novel, in general, "Kowloon Walled City" is similar to "Chinese Heroes" and "Dragon Tiger Gate" and other anime adaptations, but the specific actions are biased towards "Kill the Wolf" and "Fuse".
Several fights in the film are also quite interesting, such as the scene between Lin Feng and Liu Junqian when he first entered the Kowloon Walled City, which is particularly exciting, no less than the classic street battle between Donnie Yen and Wu Jing in "Slaying the Wolf". The last scene where Lin Feng, Liu Junqian and others fight with the villain Wu Yunlong is somewhat similar to the famous family looking for the villain in "Eagle Claw Iron Cloth Shirt", which is very classical and interesting.
The director of "Kowloon Walled City" is Zheng Baorui, this guy has been making cult films in the early years, such as "Dog Bites Dog", "Monster", etc., and later moved to the mainland, began to shoot dramas, and directed the "Journey to the West Trilogy" ("Journey to the West: Havoc in the Heavenly Palace", "Journey to the West: Monkey King Three Fights the White Bone Spirit", "Journey to the West: Daughter Country"), the first two performed well, and the third hit the street, and Zheng Baorui had to return to Hong Kong.
Zheng Baorui, who returned to Hong Kong, instead came up with two masterpieces, "Wisdom Teeth" and "Homicide", and he also won the Best Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
In addition, Zheng Baorui directed "Kill the Wolf 2" before, this time he simply gathered the team of "Kill the Wolf", and then teamed up with Louis Koo to find Sammo Hung to create "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City", and contributed a long-lost Hong Kong action movie, which is really amazing.
Therefore, even if Lin Feng starred, there was no problem, he actually played quite well this time. Moreover, Liu Junqian and Wu Yunlong can come out, and their performances are very eye-catching. Liu Junqian is handsome and stylish, and he also values righteousness, and he fights well. Wu Yunlong is strange and distinctive, and his crazy performance made his role shine, and in the last pick three, as the anti-No. 1, he didn't pull his crotch at all, and caught the play that belonged to him.
Several actors of the younger generation, after Aaron Kwok, Louis Koo, and Sammo Hung died in the film, they supported the scene, and they took over the film alone. In reality, I also hope that the younger generation of action actors in Hong Kong can take over and come up with high-quality works, hopefully!
Fans who like Hong Kong action movies can watch it.
Another: The classic Hong Kong action movie series of the Grand Duke of this site, it will continue to be powerful tomorrow, remember to watch it!