Preach in words. - Don Tears
Death, cutting edge, ranseki.
Lead-gray ground, scratches like wool balls, the man sitting against the wall with his eyebrows hanging low, smoking a cigarette, his right arm hanging weakly, the wall above his head seemed to have been smashed by meteorites, there were fine rubble falling down, and the air was floating with burning yellow confetti.
As far as the eye can see, it is gray, death, blood stains and dirt.
The inner monologue of the dying man, "Many people say that the plot of the movie is ridiculous, it turns out that life is more absurd than the movie."
This is the opening scene of a Hong Kong film from 2013.
From Mak Junlong, the horror film Zombie.
Many people may not realize that Hong Kong movies have been advancing.
Almost every decade, the screenplay, thinking, performance and visualisation take a new level.
Or because of the narrowness of the regional market, Hong Kong filmmakers can't explore all kinds of special effects productions that catch up with Hollywood like mainland filmmakers, so they have to concentrate on polishing the plot itself, trying to refine the exquisite and complex creativity to an almost impeccable and traceless degree.
In the final analysis, the charm of the film itself is always in the "people, things, and things" itself.
Therefore, the deliberation and polishing of the plot can be said to be timely at any time.
Of course, not all writers, directors, and actors are changing.
Some people have been keen on the "three-plate axe" that has been skilled for decades.
Of course, this is not to blame, seeking innovation and change and sticking to oneself are personal choices and should be respected.
It's just that the audience will also have their own choices.
Stick figures
Hong Kong films from the 1970s
Starting with Bruce Lee's three films, and whether it is a script by Bruce Lee, Luo Wei or Ni Kuang, it seems quite rough, straight to the story, the performance only needs to react instantly, not to seek precision and depth.
And to the first Golden Statue Film Emperor Xu Guanwen and his brothers Xu Guanjie and Xu Guanying rose, under the background of the old era and small people, began to have the implantation of screenwriters' thinking, the script was more and more meticulous, and the performance began to make great progress.
Jackie Chan's two films in the late 1970s, although he won the annual crown and broke the record, but whether it was screenwriting, action design or performance, it was actually lackluster, and it did not depart from the old film.
Therefore, as far as the entire 1970s is concerned, although it has begun to flourish, it is still in the foundation building stage.
Two sides of the coin
In the 1980s, there was a clear distinction between business and art
Xu Guanwen reached his personal peak with "Modern Bodyguard" and won the first Golden Statue Film Emperor, he began to show the image of "moving with the old", and then gradually fell silent until he was semi-hidden.
The solo Hui Guanjie found Mai Jia, for three consecutive years with the "Best Partner" series to show its might, dominating the box office list champion position, but its overzealous laughter, box office success but the direction has been deviated, in addition to commercial effects, the development of Hong Kong film itself has not brought much help, Hong Jinbao's "Beware of Small Hands" has created a fashion action movie route.
It should be noted that in this decade, directors such as Lin Lingdong, Wu Yusen, and Xu Ke have risen as commercial films, while Fang Yuping, Tan Jiaming, Yan Hao, Xu Anhua and Zhang Wanting have become intoxicated with realistic literary and artistic theme films.
In fact, in retrospect, Wong Kar-wai is a person who is well versed in the true meaning of "art", a few years of shooting, after filming and cutting it, these seemingly "willful" moves are exactly what the film itself needs, and the essence of art is to pursue a kind of "extreme".
With business on one side and art on the other, these directors are like two sides of a coin, seemingly distinct and independent, but in fact they are all driving the progress and prosperity of Hong Kong cinema.
Comedies, action movies, cop movies, zombie movies and even gambling movies, etc., a variety of genre themes have blossomed.
Whether it is the plot or the performance, it can be said that it has entered the room.
Carnival before the decline
In the nineties, while delicate, it fell
One week, following the power of the second half of the 1980s, he was beaten by the rising Zhou Xingchi at the beginning of the 1990s, forcibly turning the duo into a three-person round battle, and prevailing with one against two.
In addition to their commercial success, starting with "Ah Fei Zheng Biography", which Tan Ka Ming considers the best "Wong Kar Wai" film, Wong Kar-wai began to dominate the artistic peak of the Hong Kong film industry, and his fame was so grand that he could suppress almost all other senior directors, including xu Anhua, who won awards many times, Chen Kexin, a ghost talent, and Du Qifeng, who was creative and ingenious.
This decade also made Liang Chaowei the "strongest film emperor" famous, and in 2000, he won the cannes film emperor with the role of "Zhou Muyun" in "Fancy Years" and reached the peak of his fame.
Wang Jing, who emerged in the 1980s, also ushered in her heyday, gambling films, gangster films, comedies and martial arts films, tertiary films together, almost can be called the director involved in the most film genres, made 44 films in ten years, commercial achievements are eye-catching, word of mouth is not necessarily how collapsed, but with these works to accumulate a large number of loyal audiences.
With the 1998 "Domination of the World" winning the annual championship as a watershed, following Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan's name also disappeared above the top ten box office in Hong Kong, and reappeared almost a decade later.
The film genre is more complex and diverse than in the previous decade, and the plot and performance are advanced simultaneously, and many classics have emerged.
For example, Wong Kar-wai's series of works, Stephen Chow's "Truancy Weilong" and "The King of Comedy", Xu Anhua's "Woman Forty", Chen Kexin's "Sweet Honey", Mak Dangxiong's "Lame Hao" and "Black Gold", Xu Ke's "Smiling Proud of jianghu" and "Huang Feihong" series, Jackie Chan's "Drunken Fist II" and "Who Am I", Liu Weiqiang's "The Mighty World of The Wind and Clouds", Galaxy Image's "Dark Flower" and so on.
But the shadow of decline has fallen.
The most declining era in history
In the two thousand years, the peak of Zhou Xingchi, Du Qifeng and Chen Kexin
At the beginning of the new century, the Hong Kong film industry was shrouded in a cloud of sorrow and misery.
Following the record low annual crown figure set by Zhou Xingchi in 1999, Du Qifeng's "Lonely Man and Widow" reached the top with a score of 35.21 million, and throughout the two thousand years, if you remove Zhou Xingchi's three outbreaks and the accident of a "Infernal Affairs", no champion of another year can break through the 40 million mark.
This is in stark contrast to the pomp and circumstance of the last decade.
And Zhou Xingchi shot three times the annual crown, incidentally broke two box office records, pushing the film history record to 61.27 million. Du Qifeng made classic works such as "Big Guy", "PTU", "Judo Dragon and Tiger List", "Underworld", "Banishment" and "Wen Que", while Chen Kexin was almost a masterpiece, handing over three masterpieces of "Three Changes Homecoming", "If Love" and "Submission of Fame".
In this decade, Liang Chaowei once again won three golden statue film emperors, Andy Lau took two, and Aaron Kwok began to pay attention to the film world, playing around in various small production films, with the goal of acting skills.
It was a decade of desperate attempts to save the market, and the most declining era in the history of Hong Kong cinema.
Finally, the weakest annual champion film in history, "Family Happy Affair 2009", made a final statement, which only grossed 24.65 million.
But at this time, Hong Kong movies have faded the roughness of inertia and the drawbacks of rushing to work, but they are more exquisite.
The battle line shrinks
In the 10s, it was like the revival of walking on thin ice
Fading prosperity, today's Hong Kong movies are almost only left with three major genres of police, action and niche literature and art.
A new generation of directors is on the rise.
Lu Jianqing, Liang Lemin made "Cold War" and "Equator", Zhou Xianyang made "The Great Hunt" after "Murderer", Mai Junlong made "Zombie", Weng Ziguang made "Blood and Plum", Zhuang Wenqiang made the second feature film "Peerless" and Zeng Guoxiang made "Young You", and the characteristics of combining screenwriters and directors have almost become their standard.
And these newcomer works, coupled with Xu Anhua's "Sister Peach", Wong Kar-wai's "Generation Grandmaster" and Galaxy Image's "Tree Trick", almost include the most outstanding films in this decade, of which seven films swept the golden statue, and the newcomer works accounted for four.
A visible progress ensued.
Compared with the works of the predecessors, the creative sophistication of the new directors' works has been improved, the vision has become more broad, and the material and technical aspects such as costumes and sets and editing have made obvious progress, so if we only look at the quality of the film, today's Hong Kong films are still in an upward passage.
For example, "Cold War" and "Infernal Affairs" have their own advantages, but the visual and technical means of "Cold War" are more powerful and powerful. Compared with "Zombie" and "Homecoming of the Three Changes", the same dilapidated and dangerous buildings and strange things are difficult to say, "Zombies" can win in the atmosphere of art and suspense, and coincidentally, the generation gap between the films is just about ten years.
Mai Junlong told reporters, "I don't want to make a sequel to "Zombie", in large part because I don't want to limit myself to shooting only some imaginative subjects. Because I think it's okay to do anything, and the most important thing is to inject your own opinions and ideas."
Deeply.
At the heart of all cultural phenomena related to art, such as poetry, cinema, and painting and sculpture, lies in ideas.
Without thought, there is no value.
So the progress and changes of Hong Kong cinema in these decades.
In fact, it is a change of thinking and attitude.
This is the true face of prosperity.