The movie "Fury: Serious Case" is the last work of Hong Kong director Mr. Chen Musheng. On August 23, 2020, director Chen Musheng died of nasopharyngeal cancer at the age of 58. This is a very good age for a director, and there are many possibilities. As soon as the news was sent, it immediately aroused the remembrance of the majority of movie fans. Director Chen Musheng's work "Heavenly Love" in Andy Lau riding a motorcycle carrying Wu Qianlian has become a classic scene that lingers in the minds of almost every Hong Kong film fan, and a large number of excellent fashion action films, especially police films, are the strengths of director Chen Musheng, from "SWAT New Human" to "New Police Story", each of which represents a beautiful period of time for fans, and this "Fury Serious Case" has received great attention at the time of the announcement of the director's death, and everyone seems to think that The era of hong Kong's police action movies seems to be really going back... But this film gives us some hope.
Directed by Chen Musheng
The long-lost Hong Kong-style police film, the action is good to watch and addictive
"Fury: Serious Case" is a long-lost Hong Kong-style police film, and the author believes that at least all aspects have returned to the overall level of "Fuse" in that year. Zhen Zidan has returned to fashion action films since the "Ip Man" series, and Nicholas Tse has also played the villain role again after "Reverse War". I have to say that after so many years of tempering, Nicholas Tse no longer needs to deliberately pretend to be a villain, and a few facial changes can let you know that he is playing an avenger who has been extremely paranoid. And Zhen Zidan only needs to play a tough guy policeman is enough, and everyone needs to see this. In addition, senior sheriffs like Tan Yaowen and Ren Dahua are also in place, and the villains also have Lu Huiguang and Lin Guobin, who are partners in Chen Musheng's director "Sweeping Drugs", it can be said that everyone in the whole play is very serious and very hardworking, so that the whole process has not dragged on, and there is no deliberate refinement of Hong Kong films in these years.
The plot of the story is very simple, former police officer Qiu Gang'ao, played by Nicholas Tse, was sentenced to prison for murder by mistake, and Zhang Chongbang, played by Zhen Zidan, did not shield them at a critical moment, causing them to hold a grudge against the entire police force and take fierce retaliation. The film uses an interlude method to narrate the whole process, the literary drama is decent, always focusing on the martial arts drama, mainly to let the audience see the addiction, but this addiction is not only playing enjoyable, but there is catharsis in it, which is the consistent style of director Chen Musheng.
Nicholas Tse and Donnie Yen
The highlight of this film is the action, it can be said that Zhen Zidan as long as he fights well and treats it seriously, then he is the person with the best looking style and the most fashionable style in the Chinese action movie, there is no one. Zhen Zidan's action scenes have always maintained a principle, that is, to maintain the logic and coherence of the fighting, to communicate with the audience through actions, rather than relying on editing to play handsome, and playing the stick again in the film is the biggest highlight. In addition, the use of jiu-jitsu, especially the use of narrow spaces and obstacles, has been quite mature, parkour has also added the actual injury borrowing part rather than pure performance, and the action scenes have become more and more "grounded".
Zhen Zidan played with the stick again
Nicholas Tse's butterfly double knife also played very well, and the final duel of the original pure action scene was generally difficult to shoot well, usually quite stuffy, and more for the sake of fighting. But the final showdown of this film is a very wonderful stick throwing VS throwing knife, quite comfortable action design, and the classic duel in "Kill the Wolf" can be regarded as a different style of display, there is no trace of too many demolition moves, basically is to grab the gap, attack, exit to a safe distance, and then the real pleasure of continuous attack. If this is not an actor like Zhen Zidan, the author feels that few people can do both beautiful and impactful, and Xie Tingfeng's throwing knife can also be seen to have put a lot of effort into practicing. Coincidentally, when he used a double knife in the last play, it was also the work of director Chen Musheng, "New Shaolin Temple" ten years ago.
Nicholas Tse was holding a double knife
In addition, there are several middle scenes that are also very good, such as the part in the sewer with Lin Guobin, and the part where Xie Tingfeng killed Lu Huiguang with two knives, and the rest of the part focuses on gunfire and car chase scenes, which also maintains the high standard of director Chen Musheng as always, but unfortunately, it may be difficult to see such works in the future.
Chen Musheng witnessed the growth of Nicholas Tse and Zhen Zidan
In fact, looking back at the works of director Chen Musheng's life, since the popularity of "Heavenly Love", Director Chen has laid a new route for Hong Kong-style police films with his own unique narrative style, that is, full of passion and tension. Although he studied under Director Du Qifeng, he chose a route completely different from Du Qifeng's directorial style. Director Chen Musheng is good at controlling the fast pace, which also makes the police film "SWAT New Human" dominated by young actors such as Nicholas Tse and Feng Delun popular among young people. The first cooperation with Zhen Zidan was the TV series "Jingwumen", and I did not expect to cooperate again, it was already the last time.
Zhen Zidan in "Jingwumen"
"Who Am I" with Jackie Chan is a classic of typical Hong Kong-style action comedy + police films, and the subsequent "New Police Story" also continues this route, but as long as director Chen Musheng is involved, then the rhythm will be compact and passionate, and you can always see a tension in his works. In the movie "Sweeping Poison", he let Lu Huiguang, an actor who was previously just a pure martial arts drama, play the most tense literary drama in his acting career, crying and kneeling down and switching the bridge section of asking for the eight-faced Buddha in Chinese and Thai, making people forget that this person is a boxing king with excellent skills. You don't need to fight to make you burst out, which is the skill of director Chen Musheng.
"New Shaolin Temple" and "Dangerous City" are the partial costume action themes that he rarely holds, but with a strong sense of action scenes and a sense of oppression in a closed environment, the box office reputation is win-win in the market environment that was not friendly to costume action movies at that time, and Nicholas Tse also played a villain for the first time in "New Shaolin Temple", and the action began to mature. So there is reason to believe that when "Fury Serious Case" was announced, the tears of Zhen Zidan and Nicholas Tse were revealed, because Chen Musheng was a witness who accompanied them all the way to grow up, and also a witness to the rise and fall of Hong Kong police films and even Chinese action films, although he continued to persist until his death.
Nicholas Tse in New Shaolin Temple
Some people say that today's Chinese action film talents are broken, action movies are to watch one less, the author also believes that in the future, action will be more as an element rather than a theme, but the death of director Chen Musheng touched me a lot. Seeing their persistence, I believe that a new path will always be found, and in a new form, police films and action movies will be reborn. The death of director Chen Musheng has made Chinese action movies less of a good director from now on, but "Fury And Serious Cases" makes people remember that we still have some people who insist, and persist to the end...
□ Yang Tim (Film Critic)
Beijing News Editor Wu Longzhen Proofreader Zhao Lin