Recently, "Anger and Serious Case" starring Zhen Zidan and Nicholas Tse is being screened in the mainland.
The box office of the film exceeded 300 million in the 5 days of release, and the current Douban score is 7.7 points, and the box office and word-of-mouth are firmly ranked first in the same period.
As a Hong Kong film fan, the biggest feeling after watching "Fury" is that -
The Hong Kong action movies that were once "all overheated, all crazy" are back!
In fact, it is fair to say that "Fury" is not a perfect film, and the thinness and flaws of the film script are obvious.
But the success of the film lies in the clear positioning, in the genre of police action movies to achieve the ultimate purity.
The whole film is flaunted by a purely explosive and exciting style, all kinds of car chases, gun battles, explosions and other big scenes are not lacking, and the action scenes are even more wonderful, fist to flesh and free, can be a veritable cool film.
The success of this "Fury Case" has made many fans regret the director Chen Musheng, who died of cancer last year.
Director Chen Musheng is probably one of the best and most capable directors of gunfight action films in Hong Kong, and his name has countless classic works, whether it is the early "Heavenly Love", "Stormtrooper's Fury Street", or "Who Am I" and "Baby Project" with Jackie Chan, which are still masterpieces in the field of Hong Kong commercial films.
Regarding "Fury Case", many commentators believe that:
The film inherits Chen Musheng's hardcore police film style in "New Police Story", especially the two works have many similar settings.
Coincidentally, the Douban score of "New Police Story" is also 7.7 points, the number of scores exceeds 260,000 people, the film is also the highest rated film starring Jackie Chan since the new millennium, coupled with the fact that Jackie Chan was at a career trough because of the failure to go to Hollywood at that time, this film is also regarded as: Jackie Chan's career turnaround.
In this issue of "Forgotten Domestic Genre Films", let us relive this classic police film from 17 years ago.
New Police Story
New Police Story
The film was released in 2004 and cost HK$120 million to produce.
In the Chinese film industry 17 years ago, the investment cost of the film of 120 million yuan can be said to be astronomical.
This film was the ambition of Jackie Chan to return to the Chinese film industry at that time, when Jackie Chan was encountering a "mid-life crisis".
On the one hand, the "Little Dragon Girl" incident around the turn of the millennium has made Jackie Chan's reputation in the showbiz circle face collapse for many years;
On the other hand, Jackie Chan's development in Hollywood at that time was not smooth, and the word-of-mouth box office of "Tuxedo" and "Flying Dragon Regeneration" starring in him was very bad, and he was even ridiculed by critics as: Jackie Chan became a rigid "marionette" in Hollywood.
Therefore, Jackie Chan, who was at the low point of his career, returned to Hong Kong to star in this "New Police Story".
Director Chen Musheng once cooperated with Jackie Chan on "Who Am I", although the film is fully controlled by Jackie Chan, but Chen Musheng's talent as a director in police action movies is still appreciated by Jackie Chan, and later the two have cooperated many times to shoot films such as "Baby Project" and "New Shaolin Temple".
Because of the success of "Who Am I", Jackie Chan decided to delegate power to director Chen Musheng, who was also a producer in "New Police Story" in addition to being a director.
The film intends to subvert the image of Jackie Chan's previous works, no longer an invincible hero who cannot die, but a decadent man who has suffered defeat and trauma, it can be said that Jackie Chan in "New Police Story" deliberately faded the aura and returned to ordinary people.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the script of "New Police Story" was not originally created for Jackie Chan, the original male protagonist was Zhang Guorong, but in 2003, Zhang Guorong accidentally committed suicide, and the crew had to readjust the direction and find Jackie Chan to take over the starring role.
However, in order to commemorate his brother, the name of the character was retained, and therefore, Jackie Chan of "New Police Story" did not follow the common name of the protagonist in the first three parts of the series, Chen Jiaju, but changed his name to Chen Guorong.
In terms of actors, at that time, Chen Musheng gained a firm foothold in the Hong Kong film industry with two "SWAT New Humans", so the "new" in "New Police Story" was reflected in the youthfulness of the starring lineup, nicholas Tse, Wu Yanzu, Cai Zhuoyan, An Zhijie and other young actors at that time, in addition to supporting actors such as Yang Caini, Liao Qizhi, Yu Rongguang, Wang Jie and so on.
Tell the story again.
This "New Police Story" and 17 years later, "Fury Serious Case" are very similar in the main line design, both from the case of a group of masked bandits killing the police as the introduction to the story, and then lead the protagonist to lead the police officers of the serious crime team to investigate the frustrated, and finally forced to become a lone hero and start a life-and-death struggle with the bandits.
The film opens with a hostage rescue scene to portray the image of the protagonist Chen Guorong,000 tough detectives.
A middle-aged man who was ruined by the stock market crash took hostages with a bomb in anger, and the protagonist Chen Guorong disguised himself as a cameraman of the TV station quietly approached the man, then simply and neatly subdued him, and threw it into the sewer well before the bomb detonated.
This scene is only two minutes long, but it is very efficient to set up Chen Guorong's character.
He is a legend in the force, a righteous and well-trained police detective. Moreover, in the years of the police, almost all the major cases in the police area have been handled, and the case solving rate is 100%, and now it is the senior inspector of the East District Serious Crimes Unit that no one in the police force can match.
But this aura also means pressure, and Chen Guorong soon ushered in the biggest blow of his career.
Before the incident, a group of masked bandits ransacked the Asian Bank and took the initiative to contact the police afterwards to report the crime. However, when the police arrived at the scene, the gang of bandits did not escape, but relied on sophisticated weapons and equipment to open fire on the police in the street and massacred a number of police officers.
It is clear that the purpose of the bandits is not simply for money, but deliberately to provoke the police.
The case was handed over to Chen Guorong, who was full of confidence and publicly told the media that he would return the color to the bandits within three hours.
However, what Chen Guorong did not expect was that when he led the team to the bandit den shown by the intelligence, he found that he had been ambushed, and the members of the squad led by Chen were captured one after another.
The gangsters threatenEd Chan with the lives of their colleagues to test the training skills of the police force, from fighting to gun sets. However, Chen Guorong was unable to support himself alone, and he could not concentrate on the test under this crisis, and as a result, he watched his colleagues being tortured and killed.
In the end, Chen Guorong escaped from death, but witnessed the killing of his colleagues, and he was helpless, which made Chen Guorong suffer a blow. What is even more painful is that among the colleagues who sacrificed him was haokang, the brother of his girlfriend Keyi, which made him face his girlfriend facelessly, and the two gradually became estranged, and since then they have withered and spent their days drinking heavily.
At this point, the plot of the first third of the movie shows the audience the rare "big rout" in Jackie Chan's movies.
From the spirited, confident and capable tough guy detective in the opening scene, to the down-and-out man who can't get rid of the trauma after suffering defeat and blows, Chen Guorong is no longer the Chen Jiaju of that year, but has become a more humane tragic hero image.
At this time, the story introduces a new role, Played by Nicholas Tse, a young police officer Zheng Xiaofeng.
According to Zheng Xiaofeng, he was sent by his superiors to be a partner for Chen Guorong, but his personality and style were completely different from Chen's. Zheng Xiaofeng is a typical new human being, some of them are slippery and slippery, and they are good at talking nonsense, but he is inexplicably concerned about Chen Guorong's affairs, and he has the enthusiasm and sense of justice of young people.
Chen Guorong could not get out of the shadows at first, but it was the hot-blooded young man Zheng Xiaofeng who made all kinds of tricks and tricks, so that Chen Guorong began to investigate the case again. In this process, with the encouragement and help of Zheng Xiaofeng, Chen Guorong's inner sense of justice was awakened, and he was determined to reinvigorate himself and investigate the robbery case.
Chen Guorong and Zheng Xiaofeng, two old and one young, one negative and serious, one with a slippery tongue, a very contrasting persona adds a lot of drama to the story, and there is a sense of inheritance between the characters.
The two begin an investigation into the identity of the criminals, which turn out to be a group of young people obsessed with video games and extreme sports. At the same time, Chen Guorong also accidentally found a clue: he led a team to the warehouse to arrest the criminals that day, and fell into a trap because there was an internal ghost.
The person who betrayed the intelligence is a former police colleague Asen (Wang Jie), who embezzled the lost stolen money of one of the female robbers because he owed a loan shark, but was actually blackmailed by the robbers, and Asen finally paid the price of his life for betrayal.
Chen Guorong and Zheng Xiaofeng, at a party of extreme sports enthusiasts, found traces of two suspects. When the criminal saw that it was not good and wanted to escape, Chen and Zheng chased after them in spite of themselves, using the rope that the criminal had slipped down, and also slipped down from the tall building.
The scene of Jackie Chan and Nicholas Tse gliding down from the top of a high-rise building is the first relatively large thrilling scene in this film, and this scene is also intended to benchmark Jackie Chan's thrilling jump at the end of "Who Am I", in addition, in the process of chasing criminals, Jackie Chan jumped on the runaway bus, which also pays tribute to the famous scene in the first part of "Police Story".
Chen Guorong and Zheng Xiaofeng, in order to block the out-of-control bus, eventually failed to catch the criminals, and thus caused chaos in the downtown area, which caused the police to be angry, and at this time Chen Guorong knew that the superior did not look for him to come back to investigate the case, and the identity of the so-called partner Zheng Xiaofeng was not a policeman at all.
Zheng Xiaofeng told the truth, it turned out that he was the son of a thief who was helped by Chen Guorong when he was a child, after his father died in a car accident, Zheng Xiaofeng was helped by Chen Guorong, so he admired the police, although he could not be a policeman because of his family background, he longed to be the embodiment of justice all day long.
Chen Guorong was very distrustful of Zheng, who was full of nonsense, but at this time a new crisis emerged. Chen finally found out the identity of this gang of criminals, it turned out to be a group of rich second generations, their parents are either rich or noble, the leader of which is named Azu, and his father is even the chief police superintendent of the Northern District.
However, at this time, Azu and others also took revenge on Chen, luring Chen Guorong's girlfriend and planting a time bomb on him. Although Chen Guorong stopped the bomb at the last moment, he did not expect that the other party also set a dark line on the bomb, and finally blew Chen's girlfriend into a seriously injured coma.
After this setback, Chen Li vowed to arrest the gang of criminals, but the two were detained by the police station for "violating the law" to investigate the case.
At this point, the turning point of the story came, Chen Guorong and Zheng Xiaofeng blatantly completed the "prison escape" with the help of policewoman Asha (Cai Zhuoyan).
Interestingly, although the police colleagues all saw Chen and Zheng who escaped from prison, they all chose to turn a blind eye, and even Chen's boss and the rival Zhao Sir (Yu Rongguang) in the police station took the initiative to protect the two.
Chen Guorong knew that this was a chance for his superiors to investigate the case, so he took Zheng Xiaofeng and began to investigate the next target of the robbers' actions. With the help of policewoman Asha, they found a game master to open up the shooting game designed by Azu and others, and learned that the next action of the criminals was the convention center.
Therefore, Chen Guorong took Zheng Xiaofeng to the convention center and fought with Azu and others.
At the end of the story and the most classic scene of the film, Chen Guorong and the villain Azu compete at the convention center. At this time, Azu had already subdued Zheng Xiaofeng, threatened Chen with Zheng's life, and then made a gamble as before, and this time Chen Guorong finally won the game with a calm mind.
Azu was not convinced, at this time the Flying Tigers arrived, and Azu's father also came to the scene. But the other party saw his son open his mouth and scolded, at this time Azu took the initiative to unload the bullet, pointed an empty gun at the police, and was eventually killed, he refused to surrender and reconciled with his father with his death.
The film is very critical of the portrayal of Azu and several other rich second-generation bandits. In particular, Azu, played by Wu Yanzu, is fierce, even the girlfriend and accomplices who accompanied him to the soup fire did not let go, but in fact, the culprit that caused this vicious personality was his poor family relationship and his father who abused him since childhood, which also caused Azu to hate the identity of the police to the bone.
The ending is a happy reunion ending, Chen Guorong not only solved the case, but also got rid of the frustration and frustration of the past, and proposed successfully to his girlfriend Ke Yi after recovery, and at this time the director finally revealed the past of Zheng Xiaofeng and Chen Guorong, and it turned out that zheng took pains to wake up Chen Guorong and fight side by side with him, all in order to repay the kindness of childhood.
This "New Police Story" is a transformation work of Jackie Chan after entering the 21st century, the film is a pure Hong Kong-style police action film, but it is completely different from the Jackie Chan movies of the 80s and 90s.
Director Chen Musheng added more literary drama to this film, making the police role played by Jackie Chan become complex and three-dimensional, so that the film presented the frustrated moment when Jackie Chan was subject to people and knelt down to beg for forgiveness, thus subverting the past Jackie Chan movies.
Of course, as the biggest selling point of Jackie Chan's movie, this film is still very exciting. The film won the Golden Horse Award for Best Action Design, and the actor involved in the film was Li Zhongzhi, the most accomplished in the Chengjia class, who was also one of the action directors of this year's "Fury Case".
It is worth mentioning that Jackie Chan was just 50 years old when this film was released, and it can be seen that Jackie Chan who entered the year of destiny deliberately changed his action style, and Jackie Chan's action juggling in previous movies and the fancy action of making weapons with anything at hand have been reduced a lot, turning to the pursuit of thrilling, fighting, and actual combat hardcore action movie style.
In addition to Jackie Chan and Xie Tingfeng, who occupy the identity of the absolute protagonist, the most impressive role in the film is the villain Guan Zu played by Wu Yanzu, especially in the final scene of the convention center, after losing to Chen Guorong and then seeing his father, the expression of pain, viciousness and sadness on his face at this time is very in place.
This character is also the same as the villain Qiu Gang'ao in "Fury Serious Case", who is a criminal who has lost his rationality by being wrapped in anger, on the one hand, he is evil and obedient, but on the other hand, he is trapped in the shadows and experiences of the past, and finally becomes caught in the more and more out-of-control crimes, but until the last moment, he is not willing to admit defeat and refuses to return to his father with death.
Jackie Chan in "New Police Story" is full of exhaustion, raising his hands and feet with a sense of heroic twilight vicissitudes, but he is still old and strong, which is actually the inner portrayal of Hong Kong filmmakers at that time.
Unfortunately, director Chen Musheng is no longer here, and Jackie Chan has also reached a young age that cannot be moved, so such a pure Hong Kong action film, I am afraid it is difficult to have it again!