A small-budget Hong Kong film with zero remuneration won Huang Qiusheng the Best Actor Award at the 25th Hong Kong Film Critics Association Awards on January 14, which is "The Fallen Man".
In addition to the "Best Actor" award, "The Fallen Man" also won the "Best Screenplay Award" at the 25th Hong Kong Film Critics Association Awards. Produced by Chen Guo and directed by Hong Kong's new female director Chen Xiaojuan, the film is the only Hong Kong film shortlisted for this year's HAF WIP Lab (Work-in-Progress Lab) programme.
△ Director Chen Xiaojuan.
"When you meet, why should you ever know each other, the same is the fallen man of the end of the world." As the name suggests, the plot of "The Fallen Man" tells the story of those outside the mainstream of Hong Kong: a paralyzed middle-aged man (played by Huang Qiusheng) and his Filipino maid (played by Crisel Consunji), two strangers who start from the master-servant relationship, reach the respect and fraternity of the soul and the soul between the collision of cultures, and they experience spring, summer, autumn and winter together, learning how to face the four seasons of life.
Such a plot makes people involuntarily think of the French award-winning film "Untouchable", and even the posters of the two movies look a little similar at first glance.
But after watching "Fallen Man", you will find that this is not a simple and rough imitation, but a delicate and warm tribute in the hong Kong cultural background, and newcomer director Chen Xiaojuan handed over a lesson that is slightly green but sincere.
△ Left: "Fallen Man", Right: "Untouchable".
The film Douban score 8.1, the number of scorers is not much -
However, many netizens who have watched the movie said: "This is the best Hong Kong film in 2018", "The best Hong Kong film in recent times, moved to cry", "Although the pattern is small, it is full of unconventional positive energy, sweet into the heart", "Funny and warm and touching, the degree of completion is very good", "Many years have not encountered such a high-quality movie, in an impetuous era can also see the dreams and lives of the most ordinary small people, making people feel incomparably warm".
Another netizen praised Huang Qiusheng's acting skills: "In Huang Qiusheng's cute acting skills, crying and laughing, in the depressed public house can still spiral up, only dreams." ”
"Warmth is not sensationalism, affection is not indiscriminate". As the commentary said, it touches people with a delicate and tender depiction of human nature. In "Untouchable", the male protagonist in a wheelchair comes from a wealthy family, and director Chen Xiaojuan said, "If the owner is a person with poor living conditions, what will happen?" ”
So we see Huang Qiusheng and Crispel Consunji in "The Fallen Man". The owner is a poor employer who has paraplegia below the chest due to a car accident, and the Filipino maid is a young woman who gave up her photography dream because of poverty.
"What dreams do you have?" This sentence once became an Internet buzzword because of Wang Feng, but now it appears in "Fallen Man", but it is particularly heavy.
The male protagonist played by Huang Qiusheng replied: "Me? No dreams, I'm a waster. ”
Director Chen Xiaojuan said that the idea of the script came from a real scene she saw on the streets of Hong Kong:
The Filipino maid pushed the Hong Kong man in a wheelchair, and the two laughed and behaved intimately. Immediately she had the idea of writing a story.
The heroine's love of photography comes from real events: a Filipino maid named Xyza started her first camera with the support of her employer and won the world's highest-paid Hamdan International Photography Competition (HIPA) award.
As for the heroine, Crispel Consunji, she is not a professional actor, but a performer from Hong Kong Disneyland, who was selected by the crew from 300 Filipinos.
Anyone who has seen "The Fallen Man" will be deeply impressed by a scene in the film:
"The heroine accidentally fell and was injured, and after the hero heard it, he panicked in his heart, but he could not do anything to save her, so he imagined: he recovered his mobility, miraculously stood up from the wheelchair, and walked like a fly to pick up the heroine."
Are their feelings family, friendship, love? The film does not give an answer, allowing the audience to feel it for themselves.
In addition to the male and female protagonists in "Fallen Man", Li Cansen and Ye Tong participated in the performance, contributing a wonderful group scene.
Huang Qiusheng changed the path of the past drama and vividly interpreted the frustration and loneliness of the male protagonist. And zero film remuneration starring, because the story of "fallen man" touched his own sense of nostalgia, as a Mixed-Race Chinese and British, he was once discriminated against and survived in the cracks of culture.
△ Huang Qiusheng when he was young.
Chen Xiaojuan said that when she sent the script to Huang Qiusheng, she hardly held out hope, because the budget was really small, but Huang Qiusheng agreed in one breath and offered not to pay the film.
There is no doubt that he gave the character a soul, and his performance became a highlight of "The Fallen Man". In the filming, Huang Qiusheng improvised a lot of lines, because the Filipino maid and The Hong Kong people have cultural differences, language barriers, so many language stems in the film, after Huang Qiusheng's interpretation is funny and not vulgar, very rare.
"Fallen Man" won the award for Huang Qiusheng the 7th Hong Kong film emperor award, in recent years, he chose to play a supporting role, the last film emperor was 16 years ago -
Huang Qiusheng has won the Hong Kong Golden Statue twice: in 1994 for "Eight Immortals Hotel's Human Meat Char Siu Bun" and in 1998 for "Beast Police". Two-time Hong Kong Golden Bauhinia Awards film emperor: "Beast Cop" in 1999 and "A Thousand Words" in 2000. Three-time Film Critics of the Hong Kong Film Critics Association: "Beast Cop" in 1999, "Infernal Affairs" in 2003, and "The Fallen Man" in 2019, this is the film emperor he has been awarded by the Critics Association after 16 years.
And this time the award, can he be nominated for the next Hong Kong Academy Awards with "Fallen Man" and win another film emperor?
Knife knife nagging literature and art Original article, today's main writer: a small knife.