"Every day I am learning and knowing a little more movies, hoping that from the movies I can find my own world and have a space to resonate with the audience."
Text / Southern People Weekly reporter Zhang Yuxin from Beijing
Editor / Yang Jingru [email protected]
Hong Kong director Chen Musheng died of nasopharyngeal cancer in August 2020. Nearly 40 of his 58-year life have been film and television-related. He entered Li's TELEVISION at the age of 19, switched to Wireless in 1982, and went from clerk assistant and field reporter to assistant choreographer and executive director, and filmed dramas such as "Snow Mountain Flying Fox" and "Dragon Slayer in the Sky". He considers his experience in television as his college stage. After 1997, he devoted himself to the film industry. He once described the film as "like a lover, like an enemy, and like a good friend." ”
In the Chinese summer theater line, which has been weak for various reasons this summer, Chen Musheng's posthumous work "Fury , Serious Case" (2021) has nearly 900 million yuan at the box office three weeks after its release, and according to the data of the China Box Office Network, it has maintained a leading position in the real-time box office and scheduling of films in the same period. It is also the only Hong Kong action film in the recent month theater line, presenting wonderful car chases, explosions, gun battles, and fight scenes, which some fans have evaluated as "the last glory of Hong Kong movies".
Chen Musheng repeatedly filmed Hong Kong, repeatedly talking about the competition between police and bandits, the struggle within the police system, and repeated the use of many actors. There are too many familiar faces in Chen Musheng's past works in "Fury Serious Case": for example, Huang Debin, who played the policeman this time, played a staff member of the Independent Commission Against Corruption and played the inspector of the inner ghost; Lu Liangwei, whose face is already old, is the protagonist of Chen Musheng's first directorial work "Snow Mountain Flying Fox"; Tse Tingfeng has worked with Chen Musheng 8 times, from the rebellious teenager of the police academy in "Swatman New Human" (1999), to the young police officer who avenged his girlfriend in "The True Colors of Boys" (2007), and then to the middle-aged man in "Fury Serious Case".
SWAT New Humanity, 1999 ·
Film scholar David Podwell said in "The Secret of Hong Kong Cinema" that Hong Kong action films, which are designed to please the audience, "will not be ashamed to borrow the oldest entertainment sets", full of "chasing scenes, dead shots and dangerous situations", "conniving the audience, so that the audience is not tired of the dense stimulation of the scene, and they often walk into a dead end." He said that a major feature of Hong Kong movies is that they are "all overheated and crazy."
This is also about Chen Musheng. Growing up in Kowloon, he often watched cheap Shaw and Jiahe action movies screened in the morning, and when he was young, he was deeply influenced by Wu Yusen, Xu Ke and Du Qifeng.
"Heavenly Love" ·1990·
After decades of genre development, Hong Kong action movies have accumulated some passages that can be used as routines by audiences: Bombs are fast-moving consumer goods that are readily available, as if they could be bought at a 7-11 convenience store. From Chen Musheng's first film, "Heavenly Love" (1990) to "Fury, Serious Crime", we can find at least one explosive spectacle in every movie.
The bullets in the gun will always run out at key moments, depending on whether the director wants the protagonist to die or the villain to die. When the heavy scene of "The True Colors of Boys" occurs, the protagonist has no bullets in his gun; in "Who Am I" (1998), Jackie Chan cleverly hands an empty gun to the CIA ghost; in "Fury Serious Case", Nicholas Tse and his brother fight to the end, running out of ammunition and can only fight with their flesh.
"Fury Case" has not escaped the trap of rooftop drama. In "Infernal Affairs" (2001), Andy Lau, whose real identity is an undercover gangster, and The policeman Leung Chao-wai have a duel on the rooftop, and he sneers with a smile: You police officers like to talk on the rooftop. The rooftop has always been an indispensable filming location in Chen Musheng's films. In "Who Am I", Jackie Chan fights two foreigners on the roof of a skyscraper in Rotterdam, and several times he is only one step away from falling, but we all know that he will not fall to his death.
Like many Hong Kong films, the police and robbers in Chen Musheng's films randomly snatch the cars of innocent passers-by, and then destroy the cars (and many innocent luxury cars on Central Street) in a life-and-death battle, and the protagonist can crawl out of the car, and the supporting characters are likely to receive a box lunch. Occasionally, Chen Musheng will give an explanation to the audience who are tired of watching this set: In a certain chase section, the police ask innocent passers-by, are you in full danger on this car? Is it all risky? Ask twice, and then pull the passers-by out of the car.
"Keep Talking", 2008·
However, There may be one more reason for Chen Musheng's obsession with car chase drama than others, and after graduating from Duxin Secondary School in Kowloon City in 1981, he briefly became a salesman for an automobile company because of his interest in cars. Every Saturday off, he goes to a motorcycle party on the outskirts of the city. At the beginning of "Heavenly Love", he let Andy Lau stage a wonderful speeding car robbery. The female explorer in "Who Am I", while fleeing from downtown Jackie Chan and the car stuck in the dead hu, can cleverly turn the car sideways 90 degrees and start again, escaping to the sky. Gu Tianle raced in "Keep Talking" (2008), hitting more than three dozen cars in a row. "Fury : Serious Case" also contributed several wonderful car chase scenes, in a police-determined encirclement and suppression operation, Tse Ting-feng rode a heavy motorcycle, and directly ran into the car of police officer Zhen Zidan, showing the avenger's trampling on the power of the righteous side.
Who Am I? 1998 ·
"The True Colors of Boys" ·2007·
The stylization of action movies is consistent in Chen Musheng's films, and the above contradictions and conflicts always point to hand-to-hand combat. But Chen Musheng will never let the hand-to-hand combat machinery be bored. He often puts his role in conflict with fragile glass. Jackie Chan once slid down the sloped glass curtain wall of Rotterdam's iconic skyscraper with his bare hands ("Who Am I"), wu Jing was pressed to the ground full of glass shards, and several parts of his body were pierced ("The True Colors of Boys").
"Three Forks", 2005·
He has made many male stars transform through action movies. Andy Lau has the bloodiness to get rid of his idol temperament after "Heavenly Love"; Jackie Chan's portrayal of a depressed alcoholic cop in "New Police Story" (2004) also breaks through his image as a kung fu superstar in Hollywood; "Three Forks" (2005) gives Aaron Kwok his first movie emperor. The potential of Tse's kung fu superstar was tapped by Chen Musheng - in "New Police Story", he was still a hairy boy in the final battle between Jackie Chan and Wu Yanzu, tied by a long rope and thrown down the building, and was truly strangled to the point of suffocation and rolling his eyes. In an interview ten years ago, Chen Musheng praised the era of Hong Kong action movie decline, Tse Tingfeng is a rare actor with real kung fu. The performance of Nicholas Tse in "Fury Case" this time surprised too many viewers. In several close-up shots, he contributed beautiful acting skills, silently showing Gang Ao's self-abandonment after his inner faith was destroyed. Nicholas Tse said in an interview with "Excellent" this year that he had not played so cool for a long time, and "Fury Serious Case" made him have a fire, "I hope that the label of Hong Kong Action, a Hong Kong action movie, can be extended for a long time." ”
New Police Story, 2004·
It must be noted that, like most films that try to attract more popcorn audiences, Chen Musheng's work portrays women far weaker than male characters. In "Anger and Serious Case", Qin Lan plays Zhen Zidan's wife, a beautiful and gentle wife who is close to giving birth, and is threatened with a bomb by Xie Tingfeng at a critical moment. The first shot of "The True Colors of a Boy" is given to Nicholas Tse's beautiful fiancée, but she is killed a minute later, and she is only the motivation for Tse Tingfeng's revenge after that. In "Sweeping Drugs" (2013), the acting school Yuan Quan is the wife of Gu Tianle in the undercover drug cave, and her first appearance is also in childbirth, after learning that Gu Tianle is going to continue to go undercover, she and her daughter appear again five years later, kidnapped by drug lords, and used to threaten Gu Tianle. Some other female supporting characters appear in Chen Musheng's film footage, mostly characters who can't help but sob during solemn funerals.
"Anti-Drug", 2013·
Ten years ago, in an interview with Southern People Weekly, Chen Musheng was asked this question: "Some people say that your film is a man's play, and the role of an actress is to foil it?" ”
His answer was, "Because they're really beautiful, people love to watch them." He positioned himself as an action film director, and among the various factors that need to be balanced, the proportion of action scenes is more important.
Chen Musheng's earliest film is an emotional film, "Heavenly Love" Wu Qianlian played by Qianjin was accidentally hijacked by the underworld motorcycle party "Hua Di", the two have feelings for each other, she can be said to be the most brilliant female character in Chen Musheng's film (at least one): although there is no sharp hand of the action film heroine, in the emotional relationship with Andy Lau, she has always been a brave and active party. In the end, she wore a wedding white veil and ran alone on the highway to chase after her lover's gentle determination, which can no longer be seen in Chen Musheng's later works.
"New Crane Needle" · 1993 ·
In 1996, after filming "Stormtrooper's Fury Street" with fist to flesh and hard bridges, Jiahe boss He Guanchang suggested that he concentrate on the development of "fashion action films", and he did so. He did not perpetuate the incense of Hong Kong's New Wave. He did not go north as resolutely as Chen Kexin did, focusing his storytelling energy north of the Xiangjiang River. His story takes place mainly in Hong Kong, involving elements such as undercover and anti-drug.
He always said that he was not an action director like Hong Jinbao, Jackie Chan, yuan heping, and needed a team to cooperate, but he tried to innovate every time. He said in an interview that the market expects him to be action scenes, and he loves action movies. He described filmmaking as a marathon, which takes decades and runs slowly, "every day I am learning and knowing a little more movies, hoping that from the movies I can find my own world and have a space to resonate with the audience." ”
After 2010, Chen Musheng rarely had good works. In City Alert (2010), he uses stunts long ago, with one of the protagonists being a mutant after inhaling biochemical gas. In the previous "SWAT New Human 2" (2000), he worked with the American Stunt Company, and the picture of the fight with the robot appeared in the film, which was not good, so that he stopped filming for two years to reflect on himself. But a decade later, his search for a breakthrough in Chinese film special effects was not very successful. The Douban score of "Whole City Alert" is only 4.6. The douban score of the family movie "Cat Star Man" (2017), which continues the comedic elements of "Baby Project" (2007) and adds special effects animation, is only 4.4.
Chen has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director five times, but not once, and was last nominated for "Sweeping Drugs" in 2013 (the first times were "Stormtrooper's Streets of Rage" in 1996, "Two Heroes" in 2003, "New Police Story" in 2004, "Three Forks" in 2005 and "Keep Talking" in 2008).
In the film reviews of "Fury And Serious Cases", many mention the length of the film - his works are mostly more than 120 minutes long. At the beginning of "The True Colors of Boys", the small traffic policeman played by Fang Zu issued a ticket to an old man who parked illegally on the street, and this clip has nothing to do with the subsequent three-person investigation and the villain's revenge, just to highlight the character's integrity. Chen Musheng likes to set a scene for his protagonist to appear, which has nothing to do with the main plot after that, and somewhat clumsily shows the character of the character. By the way, in his films, he is almost always the first screenwriter.
However, if there is a little patience, Chen Musheng's action scenes after that will not disappoint. Zhen Zidan's fight scene in "Fury And Serious Case" has a new breakthrough: his fight with the criminals in the sewers is almost spectacle-like, without the aura of a kung fu boy or a tough guy Ip Man, which is very awkward, but as in Chen Musheng's other works, he can cleverly use space to turn himself into victory.
Chen Musheng once said in an interview that if he becomes a person in the martial arts world, he hopes to be Guo Jing, "In the real world, it is difficult for you to be a hero." ”
New Shaolin Temple· 2011·
In Chen Musheng's works, the protagonists are all policemen. One of the biggest highlights is that his heroic undertone is complex and even somber.
In Who Am I," Jackie Chan parachuts into a place in South Africa as a mercenary to steal meteorite fragments and is nearly killed; he falls from a helicopter and suffers from transient amnesia and is saved by the indigenous people (here we leave aside the film's stereotyping of African Americans), the two sides are not spoken, and he asks aloud: Who am I? The natives thought it was his name, and everyone called him "Who am I".
"Who am I?"
Many of Chen Musheng's works are actively or passively caught up in the dilemma of identity. In "New Police Story", Wu Yanzu, the son of the chief superintendent, puts on a red clown mask and co-opts the sons of a group of equally rebellious financial giants to rob and kill people. In the end, he ripped off his mask and committed suicide, angrily scolding his father as a superintendent before he died.
In "The True Colors of Boys", Fang Zuming's undercover brother is betrayed by the police. The vengeful villain Wu Jing shouted angrily, "Isn't it considered a murder for the police to kill people?" "Where is justice when I have no food?" The final showdown took place between the police and the police. The police are going to kill the cops.
The three policemen in "Sweeping Drugs" all committed mistakes: Liu Qingyun forced his wife Gu Tianle, who was in the basin, to continue to go undercover in order to be promoted; Gu Tianle was dissatisfied and called the drug lord to inform him that there was an internal ghost, killing many colleagues; Zhang Jiahui, who was abandoned by Liu Qingyun, abandoned the light and threw himself into the dark, and sold drugs to kill people. They have such a ridiculous line: One of us is a drug dealer, a prisoner, a prison robber.
In "Fury : Serious Cases", Gang Ao, played by Nicholas Tse, no longer needs to answer the question "Who am I?". He obeyed the orders of his superiors, and did not hesitate to rescue the kidnapped Rich Man huo before the stock market opened the next day, and the brothers accidentally killed a suspect, the boss did not recognize this order, the rich man did not excuse them, he went from being promoted to a prisoner of the order, sat in prison for several years, and came out to become an avenger. In the more than two-hour film, Gang Ao and his brother forced their former superiors to tell the truth and then blew him to death, suddenly attacked and killed several policemen while the police station surrounded and suppressed drug lords, killed the rich people they rescued at the Huo Bank, and finally led Chongbang and others played by Zhen Zidan to Tsim Sha Tsui.
After blowing up Tsim Sha Tsui, Gang Ao engaged in a deadly fight with Chongbang in the church. The brawl ends with Gang Ao's death: he stands on a piano, shouts "I can concede defeat, but I will never admit my life," and then falls backwards, the broken sculpture piercing his body. He achieved revenge on society by sacrificing himself.
In 2019, Chen Musheng felt unwell during the filming of "Fury And Serious Case", and was later diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer, and died in 2020. In September of that year, relatives and friends and a few film friends attended his memorial service at St. Benedict's Church in Sha Tin. Chen Musheng said in previous interviews that if he does not make movies one day, his biggest regret is that he will not reach the level of Hollywood.
For ten years, twenty years, thirty years, many people have been asking that question: Is Hong Kong cinema dead?
Chen Musheng made a beautiful answer with his last work: No. Hong Kong movies are still "all overheated, all crazy".