This may be Tony Leung's biggest gamble since he entered the industry.
2021年年初，妻子刘嘉玲递给他一套新剧本，并说，“这个导演很想请到你”。
After reading all 30 pages, Tony Leung felt that the story was not bad, but he couldn't talk about how specific it was.
In order to learn more about the director, Tony Leung and his wife went to Emperor and watched the director's last work, "The History of the Disappearance of Romantic", in the theater.
After the two-hour film screening, Tony Leung was already deeply involved.
In his words, "It's rare to see such a sophisticated and personal style in Chinese films, and I would like to have a film like this." ”
So after returning home, he quickly dialed the director's phone number and directly finalized the cooperation.
Tony Leung has cooperated with famous directors such as Wong Kar-wai, Hou Hsiao-yin, and Ang Lee in the past.
But the director, named Cheng Er, has only made 3 feature films before, and the cumulative box office is only 150 million.
Just because of a movie, he fell in love with a strange director with a dismal resume, Tony Leung's decision is not bold.
Now we know that this movie is called "No Name", and it won 1 billion box office after its release.
Tony Leung also relied on his discerning vision to recognize people, and was successfully crowned the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor, becoming the first three-gold actor in history, and completely stood at the top of the pyramid.
But what Pi Ge wants to talk about today is not "No Name", but the "History of the Disappearance of Romantic" 8 years ago.
Even if Tony Leung was completely conquered at the beginning, it still couldn't hide the huge controversy that pervades the film to this day.
In the eyes of many people, this is a "fragrant movie" that is elegant on the surface, but in fact focuses on hunting.
The times are turbulent and turbulent, the gangsters have grudges and vendettas, and the beauties are imprisoned and sexually abused.
In particular, a series of large-scale pictures performed by Zhang Ziyi in the film are almost unprecedented.
If you were in the cinema at the time, those shots would have left you jaw-dropping.
But some people say that this is the film with the highest artistic content in the Chinese film industry in the past decade.
The lines are rich in connotation, and deep metaphors are almost everywhere.
even commented that it is the Chinese version of "The Godfather" and the Shanghai version of "Once Upon a Time in America", which is a god film that most people can't understand and can't quit if they understand it.
It's as advanced as Jiang Wen's "Let the Bullets Fly".
So what is the charm of this "History of the Disappearance of Romantic"?
Is it really underrated, or is it just a modern version of the "Emperor's New Clothes"?
Whether you've seen this movie before or not, trust me, every word that follows will subvert everything you know about it.
01、
The story takes place in Shanghai in the 30s of the last century.
To be precise, it was 1937, the early stage of the Battle of Songhu.
After a beautiful overhead shot, the film enters with a man playing a homely voiceover.
This man's name is Watanabe, and he is a Japanese by name.
He came to live in Shanghai in his early years, married his Shanghai wife, and gave birth to two sons.
After the fusion of blood, he also seemed to have completely become a Shanghainese, and he spoke Shanghainese very authentically.
His wife has an older brother, known as Mr. Lu.
The prototype of Mr. Lu is actually one of the "three tycoons" in Shanghai, Du Yuesheng.
At that time, the social situation in Shanghai was complicated, and there were many things that could not be solved by the yamen, and they could only be solved by the "three tycoons".
This is where the story of the movie begins.
In a quaint tea house, Watanabe and Mr. Zhou, who is from the north, sit opposite each other.
When Watanabe was talking and laughing, Mr. Zhou also followed him and laughed.
When Watanabe's expression changed, Mr. Zhou immediately became serious.
Obviously, Mr. Zhou is the subordinate, and Watanabe is the superior.
At this time, the C position of the table is empty, and the white bowl belonging to the C position is also different from the other two.
Before the man arrived, the authority had already been established.
Subsequently, Mr. Lu, played by Ge You, entered the door, and Mr. Zhou hurriedly got up to greet him.
Looking at Watanabe again, but the sitting posture has been slightly adjusted, and the intimacy can be seen.
After Mr. Lu sat down, most of the camera fell on him, and the whole situation was also taken over by Mr. Lu.
Mr. Lu talked about the general strike and the kidnapping of workers, and hoped that Mr. Zhou would tell the truth.
But Mr. Zhou only talked about workers' rights, and raised his hand to swear in the name of his wife and mother that he had nothing to do with the kidnapping.
This made Mr. Lu very unhappy.
But Mr. Lu did not get angry, and talked about the previous meeting gift to Mrs. Zhou, and continued to show goodwill.
At this time, the picture cuts to a brocade box, and a dark jade bracelet is placed in the center of the brocade box.
But the box is too big, and the bracelet looks very small in comparison, which looks very incongruous.
This strange atmosphere also laid the groundwork for what was to come.
On the tea house's side, Mr. Zhou once again denied participating in the kidnapping, and Mr. Lu had no intention of talking about it again, so he gave the order to "go and ask for some snacks".
Then the two sides of the picture alternated, one side of the xiaolongbao was put on the table, and the other side of the bracelet brocade box was taken away.
After eating breakfast, Mr. Lu showed his hole cards, "They don't like the current order, and it's not a pity to ruin Shanghai." ”
This order, of course, refers to the order of old Shanghai controlled by gangs and warlords.
The film's alias is "The Old Society", which is actually a topic here.
And the "dim sum" that Mr. Lu said was really served on the table after he said this.
At this time, Watanabe left, leaving a sentence:
"Such a good place, everyone should take care of it, don't make a mess of the teahouse."
After Watanabe left, Mr. Lu sat down on the couch — the negotiations were over, and the interrogation began.
Mr. Zhou slowly opened the box in front of him, and what caught his eye was a severed hand, with a neat incision, and the jade bracelet on his hand.
The first three foreshadowings were also fulfilled one by one: the size of the box, Mr. Zhou's oath in the name of his wife, and the so-called dim sum.
There is also a small detail here, this box is made of golden silk nanmu.
This valuable wood, in addition to making furniture and cultural toys, is also often used to make coffins for people of high status.
Mr. Zhou's end is already doomed.
This scene is calm from beginning to end, but the image of four people stands in one scene.
Mr. Lu's "pay attention to people" style of courtesy before soldiers, Watanabe's deep concealment, Mr. Zhou's cunning, and Ma Zai's cold-bloodedness.
Such a simple dialogue scene also set the main tone of the whole film.
After Mr. Zhou relented and handed over the location of the Tibetans, Mr. Lu asked the two horses to take Mr. Zhou to the train station.
In the car along the way, the director is filming the dialogue between the two horses from Mr. Zhou's perspective.
The thug played by Wang Chuanjun is named Gao Mazai, and the thug played by Du Jiang is called Tong Ziji.
The boy chicken has a good relationship in the country, and when Gao Ma asks him if he has "gotten it", the boy chicken shows a different shyness than before.
Gao Mazai scared him, saying that he should take it out and use it before he was twenty years old, otherwise it would not be useful.
Then, a key line appeared: after you do it once, you will always want to do it.
From the analysis of the conversation between the two, this is just a joke about "sex" ridiculed by Gao Ma Zai.
But after that, the fate of the two has never been separated from this sentence.
The car reached its real destination, and Mr. Zhou, who had a blue nose and swollen face, was pulled out of the car and kicked into the grave that had been dug early.
At this time, the boy chicken lost his shyness when talking about "sex" topics, and his face was vicious.
Mr. Zhou looked at the person who was about to kill him in front of him and thought of his son.
"I have a son, the same age as you."
is just a sentence thinking of his son's dying words, but it aroused the anger of Tong Ziji being ridiculed all the way.
Then he picked up the shovel and slapped Mr. Zhou's head wildly, splashing blood on his face.
Thinking of the before and after chopping hands, Tong Ziji also looked calm, indicating that this kind of thing happens often.
And the so-called "once you get addicted" applies not only to sex, but also to violence, to exploitation, to all the conventions of the old order.
After dealing with the strike, Mr. Lu went back to his daily life.
But trouble ensued.
The Japanese wanted to set up the Bank of East Asia, and they met with Mr. Lu's boss, Mr. Wang, through the French Concession to seek cooperation.
Boss Wang didn't want to pay attention to these miscellaneous matters, and he didn't trust the Japanese, so he pushed the matter to Mr. Lu and Mr. Zhang.
The prototypes of Boss Wang and Mr. Zhang here are the other two tycoons in Shanghai, Huang Jinrong and Zhang Xiaolin.
Chinese generally do not discuss things in too formal occasions.
The first time was Mr. Lu's led morning tea, and this time, it was he who led the rubbing hemp again.
During the bureau, Mr. Lu talked about the Japanese, and Watanabe scoffed at them, bluntly saying that the Japanese were either doing business or fighting, and showed that they were authentic Shanghainese.
"The Japanese are coming in, what are you going to do?"
"Of course I'm protecting Shanghai, and I'm fighting with them."
Everyone laughed.
Watanabe is a special "Shanghainese".
On the surface, he has a deep identity with Shanghai and a respectful retreat from Japan.
But in fact, Watanabe's daily behavior is full of insincerity.
Several details in the film also hint at this hidden thought.
First of all, when talking about things twice, Watanabe got up early and left the table.
In the Chinese cultural context, leaving the table halfway through has the subtext of "I don't want to be with it".
Secondly, Watanabe often flaunts that he loves Shanghai.
But when night fell, he took off his long shirt and changed into Japanese clothes, and cooked pure Japanese food in the name of the restaurant.
There is also Watanabe's hospitality to a black stray cat in the film.
This cat often goes to Watanabe's restaurant to eat, and has become friends with Watanabe, Watanabe saw the stray cat coming, and specially cut fish meat for it.
The scene of one person and one cat eating is very poetic on the surface.
But the lonely conversation with the black cat also hints that he can't see the light and only dares to miss his hometown in the dead of night.
These all foreshadowed Watanabe's spy identity in the second half of the film.
The relationship between the main characters is smooth, and many of the scenes behind it are actually very clear.
When it was time to negotiate with the Japanese to open a joint bank, Nakajima, the president of the preparatory committee of the Bank of East Asia, arrived as promised, and brought a Japanese soldier with him.
In this relatively formal meeting, the seating is also very elegant.
You can see that in the hall, there are a total of six chairs, but only four people are seated, and two chairs are empty.
These two chairs correspond to two important figures.
One is Boss Wang behind Mr. Lu, and the other is Watanabe, a Japanese who has not yet been exposed.
Judging from this scene, the antagonistic relationship between the characters in the movie is very clear.
Although Mr. Lu was a gangster, he didn't want to be a traitor, so he rejected the Japanese.
Unexpectedly, Mr. Zhang next to him opened his mouth to ask how many shares there were.
During the negotiation, Mr. Lu quickly raised his hand to stop the conversation and motioned for everyone to drink tea.
"Drinking tea" is a sign that Mr. Lu is releasing his attitude.
Whether it is the first time with Mr. Zhou, or this time with the Japanese, as long as Mr. Lu disagrees with the other party's point of view, he will hold up the teacup.
This also shows from the side that Mr. Lu acted steadily.
In this meeting, the details of the clothing of the participants are also very meaningful.
Mr. Lu was dressed in black, which represented his tough opposition to the Japanese.
Mr. Zhang, on the other hand, wore a contrasting white gown.
He clearly wanted to pander to the Japanese.
The negotiations broke up unhappily, but the Japanese realized that Mr. Zhang might be the breakthrough.
Mr. Lu, who prevented them from opening a bank, should be removed.
In the movie "The Godfather", the drug lord Solaso chose to stab the old godfather in the street in order to clear the obstacles.
In "The History of the Disappearance of Romantic", the Japanese chose "poisoning".
But unexpectedly, he was exposed halfway and was noticed by Mr. Lu's housekeeper Wang Ma on the spot, and Wang Ma was also shot to death.
Mr. Lu was angry, so he asked Boss Wang to ask the Japanese for a meal and take revenge by the way.
In order to dispel the suspicion of the Japanese, Mr. Lu decided to set the dinner in a Japanese restaurant opened by his brother-in-law.
On the day of the dinner, Mr. Lu and the Japanese arrived early, but Mr. Zhang was the only one who was late.
Here's an interesting shot worth playing: Mr. Lu and the Japanese both brought their own protection guards.
On Mr. Lu's side, Gao Ma Tsai and Tong Zi Ji were lazy and lazy, and the two were still the size of their feet.
Even at this juncture, Gao Mazai also gave Tong Ziji a key, telling him that he was on the second floor of No. 38 Sima Road, which was a place where he could break his body.
As soon as the camera moved, the Japanese were dressed in military uniforms and lined up neatly, revealing a murderous aura.
To a certain extent, Cheng Er was hinting that the entire Shanghai at that time was actually in a loose and defenseless state against the Japanese invasion.
That kind of romance in the old era, on the eve of its demise, did not even have the slightest nervousness to get nervous.
After that, Mr. Zhang arrived late.
When Gao Ma Tsai and Tong Zi Ji went to greet "their own people", a few submachine guns stretched out of the car, and blood flowed from outside the door.
At the same time, in the Japanese restaurant, a shootout is also going on.
After a chaotic war, Lu Xian lived and witnessed his brother-in-law being "shot" by the Japanese.
At this time, Mr. Lu was still in the dark, and he didn't know that his brother-in-law was the culprit who planned all this.
Back in the house, Mr. Lu found that his family had been slaughtered.
In this scene where he walked through the grand mansion blankly, the director used a set of overhead shots, which was magnificent and magnificent, revealing a cruel sense of beauty, and the soundtrack was "Where Are You, My Father" written by Cheng Er himself.
At the same time, there is also an overhead shot of the whole of Shanghai.
A montage that forms a wonderful contrast.
Here, the Lu family is Shanghai.
The Japanese invasion broke all the order of old Shanghai, destroyed all the material heritage and cultural foundations here, and everything was wiped out in an instant.
The "romantic" that belonged to Shanghai died out in this way.
And the establishment of the new order is already twenty years later.
Mr. Luk's departure from Hong Kong represents the old order that is gone, and even if it returns, it will not be revived.
At this point, Mr. Lu's story came to an abrupt end, and a courtesan named "Little Liu" began to become the main character of the movie.
02、
Xiaoliu is a female movie star.
Free and easy by nature, the pursuit of romance.
Her other identity is the wife of Boss Wang.
Obviously, Xiaoliu was snatched by Boss Wang and married him hard.
In Xiao Liu's view, his affair outside is a silent rebellion against Boss Wang.
Cheng Er filmed a tea game and a mahjong game before, each with a meaning.
This time, through a dinner, the fate of Xiaoliu was hinted at in advance.
At the dinner, all the men wore white Chinese clothes.
Only Boss Wang is wearing a black coat, and obviously the protagonist of this meal should be Boss Wang.
But when Xiaoliu was telling the story, it was Watanabe in front of the camera, suggesting that Watanabe would "take over" Xiaoliu.
In addition, there is a close-up of the details in the meal.
When Xiaoliu was telling the story, her handkerchief fell to the ground, and Watanabe helped her pick it up and fold it.
The handkerchief dropped by this handkerchief happened to be a reflection of Xiaoliu's tragic fate later.
The movie that Xiao Liu auditioned for was called "Flowers and a Full Moon", and there was a death scene to be played in the film, and Xiao Liu asked the director whether the character committed suicide or was killed, and the director said that he didn't know.
Xiaoliu himself said that he may have survived after thousands of hardships.
This sentence is a portrayal of Xiaoliu's fate after that, and it also reveals a sad sense of fate.
Xiao Liu, who got the big role as he wished, was divided for a while.
But as soon as he entered the set, he got together with the movie star Mr. Zhao, and was also published in the tabloids.
Boss Wang is also a well-known figure in Shanghai, and he is naturally not very happy to be openly cuckolded.
He discussed with Mr. Lu how to deal with Xiao Liu, first he wanted to kill, and then he felt that it was unnecessary.
The final conclusion is to let Xiaoliu and Mr. Zhao leave Shanghai forever and go as far as possible.
After a long time, everyone forgot about it, and the lost face returned.
This matter was handed over by Mr. Lu to his brother-in-law Watanabe to complete.
The car drove to the outskirts when the sight suddenly broke into a military vehicle, and Watanabe and his party had to give way.
The moment the military vehicle turned on its headlights and the light shone on Koroku's face, Watanabe had never found Koroku so charming.
Director: Why did you arrange a military vehicle here?
The military vehicle represents the war, and Watanabe itself lurks for the war.
For so many years, he has behaved well, marrying a wife and having children as a Shanghainese, and his wildness for war and beastliness for aggression have been suppressed for too long.
At this point, he urgently needed to do something to quench this desire.
And the cherry blossom-shaped studs on Xiaoliu's ears aggravate this psychology.
Under the double stimulation, he pulled off Xiaoliu's earrings and played with the bloody cherry blossoms in his hand.
Watanabe's sexual desire and desire to kill, at this moment, exploded together.
first killed an unrelated person in the car, and then brutally raped Xiaoliu in the car.
In fact, looking at the big picture, in this scene, the invaders represented by Watanabe, in the posture of a beast, infinitely released the aggressive desire in their hearts, broke everything that was established in old Shanghai, and then took it all for themselves.
Here, the fate of Xiao Liu and Mr. Lu, although distributed in two stories, is profoundly intertextual.
Liuhe Lu Ben agreed with the same sound, and the two of them, one male and one female, represented the two sides of Shanghai at that time.
Perhaps we can say that Xiaoliu represents the body of Shanghai, while Mr. Lu represents the soul of Shanghai.
Everything around the soul was slaughtered, and it fell into endless depression.
Ironically, when the body was buried the next day, Koroku had the opportunity to use Watanabe's pistol that he accidentally dropped in the car, and ended up with this murderous demon.
But not only did she hesitate, but she also handed the handkerchief that she had dropped at the banquet to Watanabe.
When he handed it out, Xiao Liu solemnly handed over a token.
And after Watanabe wiped the blood with it, he threw it in the wilderness.
I think that Xiao Liu at that time may have been lucky, hoping that the beast in front of him who raped him could treat himself sincerely and give himself a place to live in this troubled world.
But I didn't expect that the beast couldn't change its nature.
It can also be said that Xiaoliu became a sex slave, and to some extent, he was to blame.
Never have illusions about beasts, this is the bloody lesson we learned from war.
"The History of the Disappearance of Romantic" is interspersed with many characters, and the group drama is also extremely exciting.
But the main line of the story actually revolves around Mr. Lu and Xiaoliu.
When we jump out of these two characters and look at the theme of the movie, we will find that the theme of the whole film is profound and grand.
Director Cheng Er once said that part of the theme of the film is to express the beautiful part of that era, which is also the origin of "romantic".
And the focus is on how these beautiful parts die.
This beauty is not just the superficial luxury, the pretentiousness of the characters, and the visual presentation of the glamour of old Shanghai.
It is more of a sentiment based on the old morality and the old order, a kind of classical old standard of conduct and social civilization.
For example, Gao Ma Tsai and Tong Zi Chicken are just thugs, but they are willing to block guns for him.
For example, a prostitute who lives on Sima Road can use the money she earns from selling her body to treat a stranger she has never met.
For example, Xiao Wu, who seems to be weak, is willing to gamble his life and hoe for him just because of Mr. Lu's entrustment.
Another example is Wang's mother, who was placed by Mr. Lu's side by the military commander, and when she was dying, she had to elegantly put down the key on her wrist to preserve the dignity of a decent person.
And when this beauty is completely broken, the fate of extinction is extremely cruel, and it is enough to change and subvert the whole of Shanghai.
The war made the Ministry of Exile a brutal beast, let Mr. Lu shoot and kill the nephew he raised, and let the innocent Xiaoliu become a slave......
The reshaping of all rules is accompanied by the "demise of romantic", which is also the truest meaning of this work.
At the end of the film, when Mr. Lu enters his mansion again.
The same soundtrack, the same overhead shots, but the direction of the camera is the opposite of when he fled.
Corpses and blood stains were replaced by white cloths, and a cruel desolation overflowed the screen.
One in and one out, two simple actions, but they have long been different.
Later, when Mr. Lu crossed the border and went to Hong Kong, he took off his long shirt and put on a suit for the first time.
Only one of the usual top hats remained.
But it was this hat that covered his face, and in the end he couldn't keep it.
Bending over and hanging his head and flattening his arms, he has completely surrendered to this new era.
The dignity he was proud of was finally gone at this moment.
03、
"The History of the Disappearance of Romantic" is a film that is both philosophical and realistic.
The elegance of the upper class and the broken family and country magically coexist, and the individual drift and the seclusion of human nature make people silent.
It's just that in front of the giant wheel of history, these are so insignificant.
The kaftan top hat, carmine lips, romantic tenderness, after a heavy snowfall, finally fell silent.
A hundred years later, when the Huangpu River was on the river, there was a river tide again.
The tide crashed against the riverbank, splashing a few sparse fragments.
A little vivid, but fleeting.
All that was left was messy in the wind, weeping, wailing.
©原创丨文章著作权：皮皮电影（ppdianying）
Please do not reprint in any form without authorization